So
by LusciousNesha
Summary: She dreamed of him. He dreamed of her. None of that has to mean anything, right? He even said himself, "Dreams are weird." And it was just a dream, right? Maybe not. A take on Henry and Charlotte following the episode I Dream of Danger.
1. So, I Had a Dream

**So, I Had a Dream**

"So I had a dream, a dream about a girl, a dream about a girl that I know… " When Henry noticed that Ray raised an eyebrow he thought to quickly clarify, "Not one that you know though. You don't know her name. You don't know where she works. You don't know who she is…"

"This story is becoming insanely boring," Ray said, ready to return to the game on his phone.

"Okay, so I had this dream about this girl - that we were hanging out and suddenly she was all over me… Kissing me!"

"Ummm… I don't know if I'm the guy to talk to about in your pants dreams. Have you tried your father?"

"It wasn't like that!" Henry insisted, blushing. "Well, I mean, it kinda was, but like… We're not like that. As a matter of fact I just low-key scolded her for thinking I might be interested in her because of some stupid dream she had."

"What is my place in all of this Henry? In other words… How is this my business?" Ray wondered.

"I think you meant, 'How can I help?' and I'm just venting, Man."

"This is either emotional or hormonal. At any rate, vent to Charlotte or Jasper! I don't want to hear about your teenage dream!" Ray said, tuning back into his game, "Next, you'll be talking to me about babies… WHICH COME FROM the Baby Store!" He added, turning away.

Henry sat down and sighed, "It can't be either of them, because they know this girl."

"And I don't," Ray said, skeptically. "So, it's not Charlotte, then?"

Henry scoffed, laughed, shook his head frantically and uttered, "What? Noo. Nopity nope, nope. It's very not Charlotte." He laughed, "I mean, could you imagine? Me thinking about Charlotte tackling me to kiss me and straddling me on the floor of the Man Cave?" He laughed nervously. "I certainly can't picture that. Is it hot in here? We've gotta check out the AC. Good talk! Good talk…" He rushed away and Charlotte removed the chameleon ring and appeared almost right in front of him. He tiny screamed when he saw her. "Char!"

She bit her lip and handed him the ring, "This isn't as much fun as you guys made it seem."

"Hey, Charlotte! Glad you're here. Now Henry can make YOU uncomfortable with his inappropriate dreams about you."

"Aaaalready there," Charlotte said, glanced at Henry, then stared at her feet.

Henry scoffed again, "It's a different girl and you don't know her."

"But I do?" Charlotte confirmed.

"I mean.. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know who you know. You weren't in my dreams. Don't flatter yourself."

"And she, like me, recently had dreams about you?" Charlotte confirmed.

Ray set his phone down, "See? NOW, it isn't boring anymore. Give him a harder time, Charlotte!"

"Yeah. She did. And I told her, just like I told you, it doesn't mean anything."

"But, unlike me, now you're dreaming about her, so maybe it does mean something, with her. Not me, of course." Charlotte confirmed.

"Of course not. Could you imagine?" He laughed awkwardly.

"I mean, obviously. I could. I was having dreams." She shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe you should go for it. Maybe she's still having dreams about you, too."

"Not you, right?" Henry confirmed.

"Right." They both had been dancing around the conversation and nervously trying to keep it going while getting away from each other to the point that they didn't realize that they had the same plan until they were both on the elevator together.

Ray shook his head and picked up his phone. "She'd better not straddle him in that elevator!"

Whenever they got off of the elevator, still playing the "Not me, not you," game, Jasper watched them stumble over their words for a few minutes.

"Because, if it WAS you, you'd totally not be into that!" Henry laughed.

Charlotte laughed and shrugged her shoulders, "I mean, if it was ME, I'D rethink my initial response of flight. Because, if you're dreaming about me too, MAYBE there would be something more to it."

He laughed too, "So, like IF it had been you, I could've just asked you out on a date and not made it weird and you totally would have accepted the invite."

"Definitely, if it was me."

They both laughed a lot, then said simultaneously, "But it wasn't." She turned and headed for the front door and he headed for the counter where Jasper was.

"SOooo.. You gonna ask Charlotte out?" Jasper wondered.

Henry made every ridiculous noise he could conjure. "WHY would I do that?"

"If she was having dreams about me, I'd ask her."

"Yeah, right."

"I did. She told me that she wasn't having dreams about ME, so I brushed it off. But, she was having dreams about you. How can you be this nonchalant?"

"Dude, it's Charlotte!"

"Yes. She has perfect teeth and really nice lips. She's also pretty and smart. I shot my shot."

"And she curved you, you said."

"Yeah, but she said that she'd say yes to you!"

Charlotte came back into the building laughing at herself, "I'm not scheduled to leave work. Where was I headed?"

"Hey, uhh… Char. After work, you wanna like, go hang out at like… A place where dates happen?" Henry asked.

She narrowed her eyes and looked at Jasper, who smiled and nodded. "Sooo… Like ON a date, Henry?"

"Not like on a date, but yes, on a date."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Yeah. Sounds like a dream."

Henry laughed, "I see what you did there!" She went towards the elevator, to go back down for the rest of her shift. When she was out of range, Henry let out a high pitched, "It's a date!"


	2. So, I Got a Dress

**So, I Got a Dress**

Charlotte stepped off of the elevator and rushed to sit next to Ray, "Ray! I have to talk to you!"

He groaned, "Did you straddle Henry in that elevator, young lady?"

She grimaced, "What? NO!" She shook her head, almost so disturbed that she was distracted from her initial point. But then again, _oh yeah! _"I agreed to go on a date with Henry. A. Date. Ray!"

Ray smirked and pointed a finger at Schwoz. "It's time, Schwoz," he said.

"Time? What's that mean? It's time for what?" She asked nervously.

Schwoz went to the Auto Snacker and ordered, "2 Large Popped Corns, 2 Hotdogs, 2 Sodas and the It's Time Bubblegum."

Charlotte looked even more confused, "What the heck is the," She did the quotation marks with her fingers, "It's Time" Bubblegum?" Schwoz brought over Ray's snacks and handed Charlotte a gumball.

"This has touched your hands," she told him, not even reaching for it. Ray snatched it, dipped it in his soda and tried to give it to her again. "It's _more gross, _now. So, no thank you and I STILL don't know what the heck it is!" Her voice was loud and high pitched in her anxiety.

Schwoz grumbled and returned to the machine as Ray said, "You see Charlotte, Schwoz and I have been waiting for this to happen. We all knew that eventually you and Henry would have to see each other this way. It's just regular human biology."

"Human biology works on a huge, very vast spectrum and neither Henry nor myself have ever outlined or defined our personal…"

"We knew it was gonna happen, Charlotte," he repeated, more final.

"The It's Time Bubblegum in a sanitary container," Schwoz ordered, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, so what does this bubblegum do then? Is it supposed to be helpful for my date with Henry."

"Oh yeah. It'll be helpful," He said.

She accepted the gumball this time, unwrapped it and chewed, "If I blow this bubble and something bad happens, know that I am not above violence." She added towards Schwoz, "And _you _are not indestructible." She blew the bubble and her outfit changed into something that she would never wear in a million years, which hugged her curves and showed some cleavage, even and she commented, "I feel extremely awkward that a grown little man thought up this outfit for me."

"Hey! A grown _big _man did that. Ah? Its what guys like!" Ray cheered.

She frowned, "Where is the Time's Up Bubblegum?" She asked.

"The what?" Ray and Schwoz wondered.

"Whatever the bubblegum is that puts me back into comfortable clothes, instead of this desperate attempt to impress a boy with my physical, instead of my mental!" She practically shrieked.

"Ohhhhh. No, I didn't make a bubblegum like that. What are you trying to do, blow this date?" Schwoz wondered, laughing, which Ray joined in.

"Ugh, Well, I'm going home to change and I'm doing so ON the clock!" She grabbed her backpack, threw it on her arm, punched Ray in the arm and took a swing at Schwoz, but he ducked behind Ray and she punched Ray again in the side of the head trying to hit Schwoz.

"Just, keep on the necklace. Trust me. It'll be worth it!" Ray said, not affected at all by her punches. She stormed to the tube and when she was gone, Ray added, "For us!" He and Schwoz settled in their seats with their snacks and turned on the screen to reveal a camera feed from the necklace Charlotte had on. She was marching angrily by the building and muttering hexes upon Ray and Schwoz's name for this _ridiculous boobie dress. _

Ray laughed and Schwoz commented, "She said boobie."

Henry was outside of the store when she had to try to pass by to get home, arguing with a solicitor, "No, Dude. No, we're not interested in selling bags of cream from the inside of cookies. What would people even do with that?"

"They'd make cream cookies EVEN creamier!" The man said.

"Okay, look… _I'll _buy some, but only because I really love really creamy cookies. But this is a terrible business plan, and I feel that it is necessary to tell you that." Henry reached for his wallet and Charlotte tried to cross the street and sneak by unnoticed while he was reaching for cash.

But, the other guys saw her and commented, "I'd like to cream that cookie!"

She almost turned around to give him a piece of her mind for having the audacity to be such a rude pervert, but whenever Henry looked up, wondering, "Dude, what?" He saw her. He froze for a moment and she could tell that Ray was right, _about this one thing, _that he certainly liked the outfit. But, he quickly realized what the guy had just said and who he said it about, "Hey, that's a lady you jerk! I don't care how much of her delectable skin is showing - you watch your mouth when you address a woman!" The guy rolled his eyes and Henry put away his cash, "You know what, Buddy? You just lost a sale. I don't patronize street harassing weirdos." The man sighed and headed towards Charlotte. "Acht! Don't you go that way! You take your business upwind, Pal. Leave that extremely beautiful woman in peace. She doesn't want your cookie cream and I want to really rub this in now, that is a terrible business plan!" The guy went the opposite direction and Henry jogged over to Charlotte. _Great. _She should have taken the time that he was defending her honor to haul ass. But, she had to see that through, and she had to admit - it was pretty hot.

"Can you believe that guy?" She asked, laughing and trying to cover her cleavage with her folded arms, but that just pushed it up worst.

"I can't believe that dress. What are you doing? Was that like in your bag? Was this a bet? You look _ridiculous," _he said, trying to sound like he was insulting her, but she noticed that he licked his lips at just how ridiculous she looked.

"Stupid Ray and Stupid Schwoz gave me a stupid date outfit bubblegum and I blew the bubble without any type of official documents! Like a Stupid Charlotte!"

"Well… I've always thought yellow looks really good on you. Makes your skin just _pop." _

"I don't want my skin popping!" Henry looked her over again. He certainly didn't mind her skin popping. "HEY! Eyes up top!"

"Sorry. It's a really good fit," he said.

"Hey… Lemme have one of your change back gumballs. It should do the trick," she said. He looked around. "I'll go back inside to blow the bubble!"

In the Man Cave Ray and Schwoz booed, "NO! We need to see this disaster date take place, once and for all!" Ray said, then triple beeped Henry.

Henry gasped, looked around, ducked next to the building and opened the hologram, "Yeah, what's going on? I'm right outside."

"Get in here, quickly! Don't stop to do anything. Run, Henry! Hurry!"

Henry started running and apologetically told Charlotte, "Sorry, Char, gotta run. I'll swing by right after work, though for the date!"

"Just TOSS me the gum!" She suggested, but he was flash lightening his way to the Man Cave to see what Ray's emergency was. Charlotte fumed and kept marching towards home. She was honked at several times before in the Man Cave, Ray turned off the monitor to not get caught by Henry as he heard the elevator doors.

Henry was breathing hard and wondered, "What happened? Have we been infiltrated? Is there a catastrophe coming our way?"

Ray shrugged his shoulders and ate some popcorn, "Nah, I was just testing your response time. Henry threw his head back, annoyed and Ray told him, "Kinda shoddy. You must've stopped to say something to Charlotte or something."

"No, I _left _Charlotte out there and now, she's probably being hounded by perverts because of that stupid dress you gave her!"

"It's a nice dress!" Ray commented.

"It's the kind of dress that a guy wants to get into, and you know that! Some dude said the most vulgar thing about her a while ago and I didn't give her a change back gumball running up here to you, PLUS, now I'm gonna be all sweaty, unless I go home and wash up and change. Thanks for the help, Ray!" Henry pouted as he stormed towards the elevator, distracted by even the thought of that dress on Charlotte's cute little body that he didn't even realize was so nioce."And I'm going home ON the clock!"

"Your generation doesn't like to work for anything!" Ray yelled at the closing elevator doors. "Some. People." He turned the scanner back on and Charlotte was trying to nicely tell some guys to get lost. "Uh oh," Ray said.

"Listen, I know that my booty is doing the POW and the POW, but I didn't ask for that feedback and I need to get somewhere, so please, move!" She squealed. She was practically being surrounded and Ray triple beeped Henry again.

"Dude, you're paying me for wasting my time, and that's all that there is to it."

"Charlotte's in trouble, two blocks away at that intersection with the new liquor store!"

Henry was already popping in his gum as he wondered, "How do you know?" He hid to blow his bubble and Ray made noises and pretended that their connection was bad. "Gonna hurt him when I get back!" Henry swiftly rushed to Charlotte's aid and the three guys circling her paused. "Hey! Get away from her!" He called out.

"Oh, Snap! It's Kid Danger, Son!" the blond one said. Henry just stepped towards him pretending he might throw a punch and they all fled.

"I'm gonna hurt Ray whenever I get back!" She fumed. "That was the scariest three blocks of my life! That's exactly why I hardly ever show off my figure. Always some brute around ready to proposition you. Like I want any portion of that wigga stick!" She covered her mouth and blushed. "Pardon my language."

"Didn't bother me," he said and smiled softly, "You okay?"

"Yeah, now that you're here. Wait, how did you know that I was here?" She wondered.

"Ray told me."

"How did he…?" She looked around at her stuff, then reached for her neck and snatched the necklace off. "That complete and utter bonehead! I never should have taken a job at a place with no Human Resources Department!" She threw the necklace on the ground and stomped on it, ruining Ray and Schwoz's feed, much to their dismay.

Henry told her, "I'm gonna go behind this building, change and meet you _right on the other side, _then, I'm not letting you out of my sight again."

"Why don't we both go so that I can blow myself out of this dress?" She wondered.

"I was hoping that we could just head to the date early and you could… Keep it on. I mean, that's selfish, "You're absolutely right. Here," he gave her a gumball and said, take a different building and I'll meet you at the corner in a couple of minutes." She nodded her head and headed for the corner. When Henry resurfaced, he saw that she was still in the dress. "Char, what's going on? You okay? Did something else happen?" He looked around trying to see who's butt was gonna receive his foot.

"Well, I remembered something. Just another block up and around the corner is that picnic cafe that we always make fun of couples for going to. I mean, it's corny, but it isn't far and we've already had quite a day, so…?" She offered him her arm and he smiled and wrapped his in hers. "Besides, yellow _does _look good on me and the fact that these men are trying to police my body just makes me fond of this ridiculous boobie dress."

"Well, you definitely look ridiculous," he commented, again. But this time, she could tell that he meant it as a compliment.

"Thanks. You look ridiculous too."


	3. So, We're on a Date

**So, We're on a Date**

Henry and Charlotte were still arm in arm whenever they approached the podium at the Picnic Cafe that Charlotte had suggested. Henry was glad that she hadn't offered to hold hands, because he was actually pretty nervous, so his were sweatier than usual. The hostess asked them, "Would you like an inside or outside seat?"

They looked at each other and Charlotte shrugged her shoulders, "I'm thinking outside. The weather's nice and we've been walking around and stuff already. Might as well keep the mood outdoorsy."

"Outside," Henry answered.

"And do you want a patio table or booth, or would you like to take a blanket to the yard?"

Henry immediately said, "I say we go full corny on this thing and do one of those picnics on the grass!"

Charlotte giggled a little, but abruptly stopped when she realized that she was doing so and Henry was giving her _eyes_. "Uh, yeah. Let's be ridiculous like that. Sounds like stupid fun."

"The full corny picnic on the grass experience, please," Henry ordered.

The hostess grabbed a blanket and a basket from a wall sized shelf to her right and said, "Feel free to take any place on the grass that isn't occupied by other guests. There are menus and a number stand in the basket for when you're ready to order."

.

Charlotte was unsure of how she was supposed to sit in that short dress, but Henry offered her his shirt to cover herself, since he had on an undershirt. She felt a little bit better about her outfit now that he was in a smedium tee, studying the menu pretty seriously. "I don't even know what a benedict is," he said.

"Usually means poached eggs, an English muffin and probably hollandaise sauce. Which one are you looking at?"

"Turkey, bacon and avocado," he told her, still looking at the menu, and now, she wondered if he was _avoiding _looking at her. This was go time. They were ON the date now. It wasn't the time for him to become shy or elusive! Then again, he could just be really interested in making the right food choice.

She shrugged her shoulders at herself and decided pretty quickly on chicken salad with avocado toast and vanilla chai. She glanced around the yard and saw many people sharing a milkshake, or cuddled up, and a few wrapped in the blanket. Someone had candles. Everyone here looked _super _lovey-dovey and instead of it being corny, like it usually was whenever she passed the place, she was a little bit jealous. She and Henry were on a date, but neither of them had actually talked about their feelings, or if there even WERE any. They'd had some stupid dreams and he asked her out, seemingly on a whim. She was really feeling like she probably actually liked him and this whole time, he'd still been on the mindset that this date was corny. It was, but she wanted a corny night with a cute guy like the chicks in the sitcoms. She wanted it to actually be a thing, not something to laugh about and if not, she was already over it and ready to go. "Are you almost ready to order?" She wondered.

He glanced at her and shook his head, "How are you already ready? This menu is huge! I just got out of the benedicts."

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "I just picked the thing that was the cheapest that still looked good. Splurged a little on the drink, but the description sounded divine."

"You don't have to pick the cheapest thing. Get whatever you want, Char."

"I know we just got paid, but I'm not made of money."

Now, for the first time since they sat on the blanket, he actually looked at her, "Wait, are you… Trying to pay for your own meal… At a date?That's not how this works. I asked you on a date, so I'm already prepared to pay for you… for it! For the date. Not pay _for you, _but for your food, at least. If we were just going somewhere and paying for our own food, that'd be what we do all of the time. This is supposed to be different. It's special. So… Order whatever you want. _I'm _paying." She nodded and reached for the menu again. This was too weird. Henry had treated her to things before, plenty of times, but for some reason this _was _different. He noticed her staring at him and wondered, with a smile, "What?"

"Nothing. You're just… I guess I'm seeing you in a different light today, and I didn't expect that, not when I started having dreams, and not even when I said yes to this date."

He furrowed his eyebrows and shut the menu, "Is it a problem?"

She shook her head, "Just new and kinda confusing. You and me, we like each other right? We're not like, you know, just going through the motions because we had some stupid dreams?"

He blushed a little, but admitted, "Yeah, I like you."

"So now that we've got that out in the open we're going to probably have to discuss how things are going to go down."

Now Henry snickered and repeated, "Go down?"

She pointed a finger at him, "Stop. I'm being serious. I personally know how your love life usually goes."

"Right and you also know it's because of" (he leaned forward and whispered) "You know Junk N' Stuff."

She leaned forward and whispered too, "Yeah I know. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to let it just ruin the chances of what could be something pretty sweet. I didn't want things to change, but it's obvious that they what we do now with this change is up to the two of us. Are we just having fun testing something out? Or are we trying to make something real happen?"

"Personally I'd like to have fun trying to make something real happen." he suggested. She smiled at that thought and he reached for the number and the stand, "So, are you ready to order, now?" She was.

.

The walk home was nice. They didn't do the arm in arm thing nor hold hands, but Charlotte had taken pretty much the entire container of heart shaped mints, so they were eating them on their way to her house while they talked about whether they were going to act normal when they got to work to just make everyone have to stew in the mystery or if they'd be one of those lovey doveys that they were surrounded by on their picnic. Charlotte definitely was not about bringing their romance into the work space, but agreed to let Henry show affection, if that was what felt natural for him at the moment.

Let's face it, he's the more affectionate one. He usually initiated hugs and kisses. He was the one who might want to cuddle for a moment while she was at the control panel. And, she wasn't going to tear him down for it, but wanted to make it clear that she would not be regularly hugging or anything else. Certainly not straddling him anywhere in the Man Cave.

As her home came into view, the end of the date did as well. Now, they had discussed everything from whether or not they'd change their socmed statuses or share lockers - no to both, at the moment, whether or not they were about PDA - him yes, her no, a compromise on minimal affection when nobody was around and only hands or arms contact in crowded areas, and if they were going to talk to anybody about their personal business - each other before anybody else and others limited to Jasper, Piper, Ray and Schwoz, and with both of their approval to share info… But, now it was time to consider if they were going to do the thing that even got these wheels set in motion from their dreams…

"It's a first date but it's not like it's our first meeting. So, really if we're going to do a kiss thing we should go for it, and not really make a big deal out of it. On the other hand, we've both had dreams so now we both have expectations. and it your dreams apparently I'm some kind of vixen. And in my dreams apparently you're some kind of gentlemanly knight or something. So, we've kind of thought about the kiss part but not really in a realistic way, and yet we both have ideas in her head that may not necessarily meet our expectations. It could possibly be an "Expectations VS Reality" of meme-like proportions…"

Henry silenced her anxious babbling with a kiss. Then, he pulled her closer and kissed her deeper and a little harder. His hands traced her body, collected her is close to himself as he could, and his kiss lingered as he savored the reality. Charlotte was stunned, at first. She stood there with widened eyes wondering if this was really happening and when Henry got more involved in the kiss realized, _Oh, Chiz! It actually is! _And that she probably had to counter-kiss him or something. He'd done this a few times. More than a few, probably. She honestly hadn't. But, she had seen it happen enough on TV when ships were forced down her throat, whether or not they made sense or added to the story! She had watched enough things that she could sort of fake it until she figured it out for real. But, by the time she decided how she might respond, Henry pulled back. "You okay?" He asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Yeah."

"Okay. You were kinda non-responsive. I didn't know if maybe I had totally crossed a boundary or something."

"I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. You seemed like you had it all under control, so I didn't do the whole you know, Y.A. fanfiction trope of battling your tongue for dominance," she giggled and looked at her hands, wringing her fingers together.

"Well… Did you like it?" He asked, nervously considering that she very well may not have. She furrowed her eyebrows for a brief second and that was enough to unsettle him. "Oh, God. You didn't. There I was, thinking that this surpassed even my wildest dreams and you were probably just I don't know wondering how long before I stopped sucking on your lip!"

"Wait wait wait, you're getting a little in over your head. I never suggested any of that. I was just wondering what your question meant. Because, I didn't really get a chance between the shock of the kiss starting and me realizing that I was in the middle of it to really register the feeling, and I have never kissed anybody, so I was already nervous and the fact that it's my best friend made it even more tense. Then, I didn't know what to do, so I was stressed about that to, and to be perfectly honest, I don't know if I liked the kiss because I was so focused on the outer details that I didn't really get into the moment of it." Henry laughed. "It's not funny, that was a very apprehensive minute and a half!"

He smiled and collected her to him again, gently and rested his body onto hers. "I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to be stressful. It's supposed to be a release. I've had this tension built up in me and for me, I just had to get that out. I shouldn't have just sprung it on you. Can I try again, and you promise to try not to overthink it this time?"

"I guess…" She was frozen in place as he leaned towards her.

He noticed, and stopped short of her lips to take his hands and wiggle her a little bit. "Try to relax. It's nothing painful or even really uncomfortable." She took a deep breath and nodded, trying to relax. Her hands were stiff on his arm and chest, so he took them and wrapped her arms around his neck, with his face still lined up with hers for the kiss, but taking his time to get there, until she seemed more at ease. "Let your hands rest," he told her. She rested them and did feel better, with her arms around his neck, her body pressed comfortably against him, his hands on her waist, his eyes looking into hers…"Are you ready?" He asked softly. She nodded and Henry leaned down again to kiss her.

_YEAHHHHHHHHHHP! _Charlotte definitely enjoyed it this time around. She wasn't thinking about if her body was doing the right thing, if she should be "kissing him back" or holding onto his shoulders or whatever else. She was just in his arms, being kissed, with their arms around each other and feeling safe, because Henry made sure that she was ready for it this time. (She wasn't a huge fan of surprises.) But this kissing thing… Yeahp. She was a new fan of this. Henry almost didn't want to let her go, but he knew that they were nearing her curfew and if one of her parents looked outside and saw them, he didn't think he knew how to be smooth enough to handle that. "Wow," she whispered.

"Better?" He asked.

"That was," she just smiled and nodded her head. "You know, I've judged you for kissing strangers, but it seems like that paid off."

"I haven't kissed a stranger in a while, and the doctor says I'm totally clean!" He defended. She hugged him tightly and laid her head on his chest. "Between you and me, the reality was WAY better than the expectation. Like, even though my dreams were more exciting, the kiss definitely felt better against my lips," he confessed.

"Well, that's probably because whenever you're dreaming about a kiss, your mind is trying to reconcile physical feelings with the mental image in your head. So, whatever kiss you dream about is either an imagined feeling, a mixture of feeling composed from all of the different kisses that you've had trying to fill in the blanks, or the memory of a certain kiss that you're applying to the mental picture. So, maybe your vision showed you kissing me, but your mind filled in that feeling with other kisses, since you didn't have mine to catalog…"

He kissed her again and she melted against him, falling into it more naturally this time around, and honestly, probably from now on.. for however long this was gonna go on, at least. She wasn't unsettled about it, anymore. That much was sure. He smiled against her lips and said, "Sorry. Just trying to catalog the right feeling for my dreams tonight." She nodded her head, grabbed him and gently pushed him into her front door, how he'd described her dream version to be take charge and sultry. His eyes widened in excitement and she laughed at herself. This wasn't her, but he appreciated that she was willing to give it a shot. She had to tiptoe to kiss him this time, because _she _wanted to initiate one, herself. Henry gladly accepted, then hesitantly let go of her.

They had reached her curfew. She chewed the gum he'd given her earlier to change back into her clothes, so that she didn't have to explain a dress that they knew that they hadn't bought and had never seen to her folks. She gave Henry's hand one last squeeze and they simultaneously said, "Sweet dreams," then both laughed as she went inside and he leaned against the door, smiling. _That went well._


	4. So, You Got Yourself a Little Girlfriend

**So, You Got Yourself a Little Girlfriend**

Henry woke up pretty early, That wasn't usually the case. Usually, he had to drag himself out of bed, sneak coffee, because his mom (with all of her bad habits had the audacity to police his). And morning coffee was definitely one. But, today, he was surprisingly energetic. He had a SICK dream about Charlotte last night, and that dress, and what shoulda, coulda, woulda happened if he had her all alone at a picnic. He blushed and reached for his phone to check the time, wondering just how early he had gotten up. Only 30 minutes before his usual time. Not too bad… But, he had a couple of texts from Charlotte. He immediately perked up and checked them.

One of them was from the previous night, so he was unsure of how he missed it. But, then again, he'd spent some quality time in the shower and he hadn't been sleeping very well prior to last night, so he crashed pretty much right afterwards.

That one read: _Hey, are we gonna be the type to wish each other good night? I forgot to bring that up as a discussion topic. In fact, now that I've brought it up, what about good mornings? You know what? - I'll just open a sharable document and send you the link, because some other questions weren't asked too, now that I'm thinking about it. _

He giggled and caught himself, and looked around, relieved that nobody was there to hear that.

The next one was 30 minutes before: _Wishing you a good morning! Here's the document link. _

Now, he flat out laughed. She was so… efficient all of the time. He wasn't about to read whatever that document was. They could talk when they walked to school. Shucks! School! He had to make himself a little more presentable today! Did he have cologne in here somewhere? He had to get more, he was pretty sure. He might try something new out. But, for today… Dang… He went pushing through his closet. Why do I have so many plaid shirts? Was there an 8 year sale? Those and raglan shirts were literally all that were in this ding dang closet.

Henry wiped a hand down his face and found one of his raglan tees. At least they hugged his body. Charlotte liked his body, right? He had no idea what she was physically attracted to! All these years and he couldn't remember one crush, not even a celebrity one, besides Captain Man and she totally got over that quickly after meeting Ray.. and Ray was alright back then. Sometimes, Henry could swear the guy was losing his marbles. Why was he thinking about Ray? Which reminded him - he owed him a piece of his mind for that camera stunt…

Henry washed up, got dressed, brushed his teeth, skipping breakfast and coffee and played with his hair for like 20 minutes before he heard Piper yell, "Henry! Let's go, or we're leaving you!" _We're?_ His heart rate accelerated. Was _we're _including Charlotte? Was she here already? Because, he wasn't ready yet!

He grabbed his backpack and ran to the stairs, stopped and froze when he saw her and Jasper laughing and talking by the door. He took a deep breath and reminded himself, "It's just Char." Then, he ran down the stairs. "Mornin' peeps!"

Jasper immediately began chatting him up about a new fish buffet that Charlotte had already turned down. She and Henry made eye contact and she glanced over him and fought a pleased smile. "Mornin' Hen. I texted you. Guess you were busy working on that hair, huh?" She teased.

He blushed and nodded, "That's literally what happened."

Jasper called out, "Hello?"

Charlotte answered, "Jasper, nobody wants to eat buffet fish!"

Henry followed up with, "Yeah dude, that sounds nasty. Buffet food sits on those warmers for God knows how long. I'm surprised nobody's gotten sick."

Charlotte added, "They have! And it's only been open for two weeks!"

Henry cringed then reached for her hand as Jasper grabbed the door, not noticing and complaining, "I swear, you two have no sense of adventure." He walked ahead to the car with Piper as Henry locked up and when they were sort of alone, he kissed her.

"That's all I've thought about since last night," he confessed and they parted and headed for the car. Jasper nor Piper had seen that.

"Guess that answers question 6," Charlotte said. Henry tilted his head, "You didn't read the document."

"I thought we'd have time to go over it on the walk to school. Gimme the Cliff notes."

"It's not a report. It's questions," she said as he opened her door and helped her inside. "Just open it. You can add the answers.."

"Henry, what are you doing?" Piper wondered, looking at him weird. "Get in the back. Charlotte's up front." Jasper was watching this, now. Henry jumped into the backseat and Jasper smirked. "What were you going to do? Sit on her lap?" Piper wondered.

"Yes, Henry, what were your intentions for Charlotte's seat?" Henry slapped him on the chest and he gasped and held himself. "Ouch! You know I have sensitive nipples!"

"Say anything remotely like that again and you're walking," Piper said.

.

Whenever they got to school, Charlotte wasn't acting any differently. Henry was. Well, he felt different, at least. He felt like the earth had moved under his feet and wasn't sure if she felt that too. She went to her locker and he let her, not wanting to seem clingy, but then again… he usually went to her locker, so he should probably go. Because there was nothing in his locker that he needed at the moment. "Henry, what are you doing?" She wondered, slightly chuckling.

"I think I'm maybe overthinking!" He said, nervously.

"My God! Does it hurt?" She teased. He pouted, but noticed her smile and quickly matched it. "Dude, just be yourself. That's obviously who I like."

"Just be myself, Miss Goodnight/Good Morning texts?" He taunted back.

"Well, you never replied, so that's cancelled."

"Wait, what? Really?" He panicked. Has he _already_ made a bonehead boyfriend move? She fought a smile. "When did you become this playful?" He wondered.

"Maybe your playfulness is contagious. Maybe you transmitted it in that sneak kiss this morning."

"I'm gonna transmit a whole lot more than that." She stopped smiling and looked concerned. "Wait. That came out wrong. I meant.. I'm gonna be kissing you.. like a lot, so… more where that came from…"

"My class," she said, eyeing him weirdly. "Henry… you look great today, by the way." He blushed. "Whatever you did this morning paid off." She glanced around, quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek and went into class. He just stood there, looking good, grinning and waving.

"Henry Hart, have you no class?" Ms. Shapen asked, passing by.

"Okay. That's very oddly worded. I'm on my way to class." He pointed his thumb in a direction and went that way. _Where's he going?_ Charlotte wondered. His class was the other way… _And there he goes._Henry finger gunned in the right direction of his class as he passed by again and Charlotte was the one giggling now.

.

At lunch, Henry laid on Charlotte's shoulder - something he sometimes did when he was sad, so Jasper asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Why are you nurture surfing Char's shoulder?" Charlotte was chewing, but turned her head to look at Henry's face to see what he'd say about this, since they said that they weren't making any announcements, but weren't necessarily hiding it.

"Charlotte's my girl," Henry said and squeezed her side.

Jasper's eyes widened and he asked, "After just one date?"

"I'm a good kisser," Henry said, shrugging.

Charlotte laughed and covered her mouth so she wouldn't spill, then added, "It's true though." Henry smiled, rubbed her side, where he'd previously squeezed, and sat up. "Did you make it to class on time?" She wondered. He nodded, then the conversation went as normal as usual. Jasper didn't even bring up their status again.

_Oh, but after school…_

The first thing Henry did was step off of the elevator and confront Ray about the camera. "Dude, you and Schwoz put Charlotte in that dress, AND you tried to watch our date on a spycam?"

"You're welcome," Ray said.

"I'm not welcome. She almost got hurt!"

"That's why you're welcome. I helped you save her!"

"You put me IN the situation with that stupid dress!" Charlotte fussed and Henry nodded, folding his arms.

Ray clasped his hands together and said, "Charlotte, unpack that thinking. What a woman wears is no excuse for what those guys did."

Henry nearly exploded, "Are you serious? She KNOWS that. The point was you were wrong, Man!"

Ray nodded, "I can see how the two of you feel that way." To Henry, he whispered, "But you liked the dress, didn't you?"

Henry angrily whispered back, "I loved it!"

"Besides the point!" Charlotte fussed from the panel, as she took her seat.

Ray called out, "Sorry, Charlotte!" She rolled her eyes. He pulled Henry aside a little.

"Why are you touching me?"

"Shh. She hears really well."

"She's got perfect hearing, perfect vision and perfect teeth," Henry bragged without thinking.

"Shh. How did it go?" Ray asked. "Make a fool of yourself? Did SHE? She step on your toes dancing? Did she shoot her drink out of her nose fake laughing at one of your terrible jokes?"

"What? No. Why would any of that happen? And why would I tell you about it in excitement, if it did?"

"So we could laugh at Charlotte for being bad at dating, why else?"

Henry fake laughed then announced, "Yeah, I'm leaving this conversation." He went over to Charlotte as she was turning dials and wondered, "Is Ray looking over here and being suspicious?" She glanced at Ray doing exactly that and nodded. "He's trying to find out about us and masking it in his anti-Charlotte rhetoric."

"I have no idea why that man dislikes me so much."

"I think it's just your season. Couldn't be Jasper forever." She frowned.

"Awww, cheer up, Char. It can't be you forever, either."

"You know, he could just be a man and deal with his unhealthy habits instead of inflicting them upon the kids in his life."

"Could he? That seems pretty evolved and he's not really… that way." She rolled her eyes and Henry gave her a hug. "You always smell really nice."

"I have this thing called soap. I mix it with a little water, apply reasonably and rinse. Works like a gem," she said, pulling away from this hug that lasted longer than necessary for her. "You seem to have some of that too."

"Yeah, I like to pair mine with some strong acting, softly scented deodorant. You know, keep things fresh. Also getting ready to add a dash of cologne to the team."

"Ooh, cologne's being added to TeamSmellGood? I hope you pick something musky."

He gave her a big smile and said, "I sure will, now." Then, he reflexively kissed her on the lips. Her eyes widened, because HELLO - they were on the clock, in front of others, and basically, nothing about this situation was the plan! He flinched and covered his nose and mouth with his hands. "I swear, Char, I didn't intend to do that…"

"AHA!" Ray yelled, rushing over. "I knew it. I knew that the date went well. You got yourself a little girlfriend now, and suddenly you're too self-righteous to laugh about Charlotte's social failures."

"I have the least amount of social failures in this entire building," Charlotte said. Ray ignored it.

"You two should have disclosed the information to management."

"For… professionalism? Because, in this very room, I've been almost killed at least a dozen times by one of your tantrums," Charlotte complained, returning her attention to the screens.

Henry interrupted, "Ray, there's nothing to disclose…" Charlotte threw him a look. "I meant it's none of his business." She nodded once and got back to work. "I'd have told you, if you hadn't nearly got her assaulted last night just so you could spy and possibly laugh at what you thought was going to be embarrassing for her. Honestly, I'm still kinda sensitive about that, so I don't plan on telling you anything."

"Just tell me this… Do you officially have a girlfriend now, because when you do, you're kinda annoying, and I just wanna know what flavor of whine you'll give me at down times on missions."

"I vote on telling him nothing," Charlotte said.

"I'm not telling him nothing."

"Good job." Henry leaned against the panel and started talking to Charlotte about her notes for a certain class. She was complaining that he spent the class on his phone and should have been taking notes himself. He refuted that he was trying to answer her questions in the document, to which she pointed out that such things will not be deemed reasonable excuses for slacking off and wanting her to bail him out in class…

"Wait… Wait! Are you two creating a couple bubble? Because couple bubbles are restricted in the Man Cave!"

"We're literally talking about school," Henry said.

"There was some coding in there, though. I don't know what, but some of that was couple bubbling, and I will not stand for it!"

"Then go have a seat," Charlotte suggested.

Ray scoffed and looked at Henry, "Are you going to let her talk to me like that?"

Henry shrugged, "My girl does what she wants." Charlotte nodded her head.

"Your 'girl'…. I KNEW IT!"

"Yes, of course you did. It was obvious. You just wanted me to say it to hear me say it. You saw me kiss her on the lips."

"I've seen you kiss tons of people on the lips, half of them you'd never seen before. That proves nothing!"

Henry laughed nervously, scoffed several times, and told Charlotte, "Not tons. That's definitely hyperbole."

She shrugged. "I don't care about who you kissed before me." He sighed with relief. "But, you'd better never try that again." She threw him a look to let him know she meant business and he received that message.

"Yes, Ma'am." Within moments, there was an alert for a call, and once again… everything around them went back to normal.


	5. So, This is for a Boy

**So, This is for a Boy**

Charlotte was never one for focusing too hard on any boy. She certainly wasn't interested in holding hands, making googly eyes, and… kissing them… on the lips. So, whenever she recognized her feelings for Henry, she tried to remain practical.. you know sensible, as she was apt to be her entire life.

But here she was, on the heels of 16, seeking out a sundress JUST for the sake of looking pretty… for a boy! And not just any boy… HENRY! Of all the boys in the world, her reasonable mind chose Henry? How and why was she here?

She frowned, thumbing through the sizes. It appeared that she was going to have to go to the kiddie section in this store. She sighed. "What are you doing here?" She asked herself. Well, let's see…

The other day, in the Man Cave, Ray and Jasper casually talked about how it was officially sundress season and teased Henry for not being able to participate. "Henry can participate all he wants," she said, coolly. She was confident and secure that girls in sundresses wasn't going to be their collapse.

He chuckled nervously and assured her, "I'm not interested in looking at other girls just because they're cute and showing some skin. Sundresses are overrated." And she just knew by his tone that was a lie, but whatever. He could be fake sometimes.

Jasper suggested, "Ooh, Charlotte! You should get some sundresses! I'd bet Henry'll like that!" Charlotte barely had a moment to consider it.

Henry kindly told him, "Char's not changing her wardrobe to impress some dude, Bro. Sundress season isn't a deal breaker for me. I knew who I was getting with."

Now, she heard the record scratch. "What does that mean?" She wondered.

He shrugged, "You're like one of the guys. I'm dating my friend not like, you know.. a girl-girl."

"So.. dating me is what, like if you were dating Jasper?"

Jasper chimed in, "No way! I'm _definitely_ showing some skin! You guys should see the crop tops I ordered. I've even got a couple of romphims for Spring Break."

"I'm sorry, what?" Charlotte asked at the same time that Henry said, "Not sure I want to see that."

Then Henry finished with, "I just mean that you're not caught up in trying to be pretty or cute or hot or anything like that, which is attractive in it's own way…" which to her sounded like nothing short of_ "You are none of those things."_ She just nodded.

Now, she's in this store for women, feeling silly because her size doesn't have anything to fit what she was trying to do. She decided to just leave, to be honest.

On her way out, she bumped into Bianca and Chloe. "Charlotte!" Bianca cheered. "You remember Henry's_ friend _Charlotte, right?" She awkwardly waved at them both. "Charlotte, I didn't know that you came to the mall."

"I was trying to find a sundress, but my size wasn't actually in there. I may have to just make something."

"_You _were trying to shop for a sundress?"

Chloe said, shocked.

"Yeah. I can be pretty and cute and hot too, thank you very much!" Both girls eyes widened.

"Of course, Charlotte. You're totally all of those things, just like you are. Are you just looking for a change? Because you're about my size, so I probably have sundresses you can borrow, if you just need it for an event or something." Chloe offered.

Bianca waved a hand and shook her head, "No. That clapback was definitely meant for somebody she's trying to prove something to." Bianca gasped. "What if we do a makeover?"

"I love makeovers," Chloe said.

"I don't want or need a makeover. I don't even want the sundress anymore. I just want people to stop suggesting that I can't pull off the look. I can pull off any look."

"And you don't have to prove it!" Chloe cheered.

"Dang straight!" Charlotte said back… "But, _can I_ borrow a sundress? I really just want throw it in their faces!"

"Whose faces? Your parents?" Bianca asked.

"No. The guys. Henry and Jasper and the men we work with. Hen said that I'm "one of the guys." What kind of thing is that to say about your girrr-bestfriend?"

"Henry's never been too bright when it comes to girls," Bianca said. "Sweet guy, but often sticks his huge foot into his mouth."

Chloe just rolled her eyes, "Or straight up lies to you. I don't know how you've been friends with him for so long. He usually flakes on everyone by now."

"Well, he sees her as one of the boys," Bianca said with a shrug, but something caught Charlotte's attention. "If she was like a girl-girl, he'd probably have flaked by now… Charlotte, what are you staring at?"

"See that short set that kinda looks like a dress?" They went to the store and eyed the floral crop top with matching shorts. "If I wore this with a pair of suspenders, knee socks and sneaker boots, think it'd be cute?"

"Everything you wear is cute," both girls said.

"Think it'd shut the boys up?"

"Try it on and we can answer that better," Bianca said, knowing FULL WELL Charlotte was gonna kill it in that outfit. She could put a Fred Lobster mascot head on and still werk it.

She came out of the dressing room and both of the girls faces told her:_ I'm definitely that girl. _They praised her and they waited as she bought it to wear out. They hung out for a while and really, Char was gonna go home, throw that outfit in a drawer and maybe someday mix and match wear it with jeans or leggings and alter it here and there. She didn't know why she needed to just see someone see her like the obviously attractive girl she was, but hey - it happens to the best of us. She felt better just by having showed off in front of these two girls.

They were laughing and talking about the spring dance whenever Chloe gasped and said, "Kid Danger is here!" She grabbed the arms of her company and rushed over to see Captain Man and Kid Danger, in action up close. Charlotte tried to hide behind the two girls, but at some point, he most definitely saw her… and he saw her. She smiled awkwardly as Captain Man collected their mannequin parts thief and Kid Danger stared at her a little too long.

"Excuse me Kid Danger," Bianca said. He just now noticed her… and Chloe. Charlotte had been all that he saw for a full two minutes. _Was she here with them? What was happening right now?_

"Yes, Citizen?"

She laughed, "Do you not remember me?" She wondered for a moment, then waved a hand, "Nevermind. We were wondering if you could settle something for our friend here."

"This isn't necessary. Kid Danger is super busy…"

Bianca continued, "Charlotte's friends and coworkers think that she's not pretty, cute, or hot! Weigh in." Charlotte looked around for an exit to run out of.

Kid Danger squinted at her and said, "I'm positive that nobody's ever said that to this girl."

"Because she's all that, yeah?" Bianca asked, nodding her head.

"She's more than that.. " he looked her over again and cleared his throat, "She's a Swellview scholar. I've seen in the news.. spelling bees and gizmo fairs… and yes, certainly she's all that, as you put it. I'd ask her out, but I'm certain a girl like this has a boyfriend."

Chloe offered, "She'll dump him!" Kid Danger's eyes widened and Charlotte laughed uncomfortably, then made a run for that exit she spotted. "Or not," Chloe said.

He wanted to chase her, but he had to catch up to Ray and they got another call en route.

.

By the time Henry made it to Charlotte's, she was in her nightclothes with her hair tied up and getting ready to put on her bonnet for the night. He knocked on the window and she jumped. She was more nervous than a few weeks ago when she was having kissing dreams about him. She opened the window and wince smiled. "We think you're not pretty, cute, or hot? Was that a joke?"

"I never said that. Not flat out like that. But come on Henry. How did you think I was supposed to take all the," (she deepened her voice to imitate him), "You don't care about trying to be pretty. That's attractive in it's own way. I knew who I was getting.." she held out her hands, "It SOUNDS LIKE you knew you were getting some unattractive girl who you really like because you're cool with her."

"I feel like my reaction to you on our first date established that wasn't the case."

"That was weeks ago and also something that I didn't choose to wear. It wasn't me! The me that I am, you…" she folded her arms, "you sounded like you're settling for my looks or something. When I'm actually superbad if I throw on something cute."

"You're superbad in whatever, Char. However what I said, I was actually trying to compliment you on never feeling like you have to impress anybody. I didn't mean to make you feel any other way but proud of being you."

"You were definitely lying about sundress season, though."

"Yes, because nobody in their right mind tells their girl that they want her to wear anything that she doesn't want to wear. Likewise, no dude with a super hot girlfriend wants her to not wear a sundress. Sundresses are amazing and you're beautiful. You'd turn me into literally a useless pile if you ever wore one. I could hardly concentrate on anything seeing you in that bikini suit today."

"It was a short set."

"Well.. it was awesome. You looked all the things that you for some reason thought I implied that you weren't. You were all that."

"I want for everybody to stop saying "all that."

"I didn't start it. Call Bianca and tell her the 90s didn't approve of that loan." She laughed. "Why were you with Bianca and Chloe?"

"I just ran into them."

"I thought there was an uprising."

She laughed. "Hey.. if I ever make you feel some kind of way…"

"I didn't set out to vent to these girls about you. I honestly was just looking for something to make me feel pretty and maybe rub it in your face. I feel really silly, if that helps."

"I feel silly. I had no idea what I said could have been taken that way. I dream about you every night. You're always pretty and it's always hot." She pursed her lips, but she was blushing. "Instead of pressing those together, you wanna press those against me?" She smiled as Henry moved in for a kiss. He made a moaning sound and asked, against her lips, "Where's that outfit from earlier?"

"Goodnight, Henry!" She gave him one more kiss, then shut the window on him. A few minutes later she got a screenshot texted to her of an edit to his contacts. He put her info under _Pretty Cute & Hot._The smile on her face hurt her cheeks. _How did Henry Hart get into my system like this?_


	6. So, About Those Dreams

So, About These Hormones...

Piper was always getting invited or devising her way into things for older kids. Maybe it was because she had an older brother that as a child she always had to tag along with, maybe she simply had mature tastes. But, she was definitely going to that spring for formal at the high school. She'd gotten Charlotte to help her with her dress and was still searching for her excuse in. When trying it on, she wondered, "Are you going stag again?"

Charlotte cleared her throat and said, "No, actually I'm gonna… go… with… Hen." Piper dropped the handful of material that Charlotte had been pinning. "Piper!" She handed it back to her.

"Sorry. I had a faint moment. I thought you said you were going to a formal dance with my brother!" She laughed.

Charlotte cleared her throat, said, "I did," and caught the material that time when Piper dropped it again.

"Did you just decide to make yourself unavailable for dances, list a bet, trying to avoid the possibility of gross Jasper kissing you, it some other, darker reason?"

"Well… Henry and I have been, umm, well.. seeing each other for a little while." Piper's eyes were wide. "We're going to the dance as a couple. On a date. A boyfriend/girlfriend dance date." She smiled awkwardly. "Surprise!"

Piper collected the material and went to the couch, "I gotta sit down for this one. I knew that something had changed. I thought that Henry wised up and finally wanted to hit it. I didn't suspect that this was mutual. What about that weird Jasper crush not too long ago?"

"It wasn't. You were right the first time. The dreams were about Henry."

Piper squinted, "You thought it was less embarrassing to pretend to dream about Jasper than my brother? He's definitely a loser too, but," Piper just shook her head.

"I thought it'd be more awkward if you knew I was dreaming about kissing your brother instead."

Piper looked like she was about to have a moment like she had when she thought Henry might be Kid Danger. "And now, the two of you DO kiss… on the lips…"

"For now." She jumped when Piper let out a shrill scream. "Piper, sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I know that girl code says you shouldn't sneak around with a friend's brother. But technically, he was my friend first and…"

"This is awesome!" Piper said.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"This. Is. Awesome. Henry belongs to me now. Anytime he thinks he's gonna pull some stupid brother stunt, I get to remind him that I'm friends with his girlfriend."

"Oh, I don't think I should get involved…"

"And boys do anything for you if it might threaten their lip kisses supply!" Piper stood up, "Thank you, Charlotte. I won't take this newfound power for granted." She giggled, then chuckled, then cackled. Charlotte just sat on the couch smiling with widened eyes.

.

Henry was annoyed. Ever since Piper found out that he and Charlotte were "kissing on the lips," nearly everything that he did, she found some way to threaten to tattle to Charlotte that he was being mean, or inconsiderate, or rude. Charlotte told him that she wasn't going to take Piper very seriously, but he wasn't risking anything. What if in this instance or in that instance that Charlotte happened to agree with Piper and he missed out on kissing and touching and whatever else they had going on. Piper wasn't going to deplete his cuddling resources!

She also seemed to be hinting at telling their parents about he and Char, which - he knew that his parents wouldn't care that they were involved, but what if they became more strict about their time together. As of right now, he and Charlotte could spend hours together, unsupervised. If his parents realized that they had two teenagers in the house that were interested in each other and involved, that might be grounds for some changes of rules. He liked the current rules. He liked having Charlotte and the house to himself for several hours a night on any given night. So, anytime Piper seemed even remotely about to do anything, he went out of his way to see what he could do for her.

"Honestly, that seems like no kinda way to live," Jasper said.

"It isn't. But, what am I gonna do? Ruin what little time that I have to be alone with Charlotte just to not be under Piper's foot?"

Jasper nodded his head, but Henry rolled his eyes. "Where _is _Char, anyway?"

"She has to do some interviews for a social experiment for her psychology class, before and after school for a few days."

"What's the experiment?" Jasper wondered. Henry laughed. _As if he'd know! _But, before Jasper had a chance to comment on that, they noticed Charlotte talking to a guy in her psychology class, outside of the classroom. He was standing pretty close to her, with his hand on the wall, practically in kiss region and Henry was not pleased. "That dude looks mighty cozy with Charlotte."

"Yeah, he does," Henry said and marched over to slide in between them, facing the guy. "Hi. Henry, and you are?" The kid stepped _way _back and awkwardly shook Henry's hand. Henry tried to squeeze the life out of that hand.

Charlotte answered, "Henry, this is Rocky. Rocky, Henry - my boyfriend that I was telling you about a moment ago." She clutched Henry's shirt, almost desperately and he placed a hand over hers, staring the guy down, suddenly thinking that maybe Charlotte hadn't _wanted him _all up in her space.

"Rocky. You were standing kinda close, Dude. People have bubbles. You get it. You observed yours when I stepped in the middle of you two, which I barely had room to do, because you were all up in my girl's bubble."

Rocky threw both of his hands into the sky and said, "She didn't seem to mind, to me."

Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows, "I told you that you were too close."

"Yeah, but you giggled when you said it."

"I laughed uncomfortably," she corrected him, clutching Henry's shirt tighter, angrily.

"I thought you were just joking around. It's not like I was harming you."

"The harm is that she told you to respect her space and you violated her wishes," Henry said, pissed off by this point. "Why don't you go somewhere else, right now?" Rocky rolled his eyes and left. "He's lucky I didn't start the conversation by punching him in the face."

"Guys have no respect for our boundaries!" Charlotte fussed, finally letting go of Henry's shirt. "I asked him several times to back up and even announced that I have a boyfriend and he might not appreciate it, thinking that perhaps the boyfriend card would matter more than my wants. Some people are just…" She folded her arms.

Henry cupped her chin and pressed his forehead against hers, "Do you want me to go sit on his lap at lunchtime?"

"No. He'll think that you're jealous and probably think that means you're intimmedated by him and give him more fuel to bother me."

Jasper asked, "Want _me _to go sit on his lap at lunchtime?"

She nodded and pointed to him, "Yes. That's more like it." They headed for work and Jasper wondered, "Hey, what's your social experiment about?"

"Oh, it's a study on how boys don't value certain girls or seek to try to obtain them until they become involved with someone."

"Like how all these guys are suddenly interested in you now that you and Henry are a couple!"

"Yep."

"Wait, what?" Henry inserted himself into the conversation, suddenly interested in her project.

"Oh yeah, Charlotte always has some guy flirting with her or asking her out or complimenting her," Jasper said.

"That's what gave me tha idea for the study."

Jasper commented, "To be fair, you do look better since you two started dating. You both do, actually."

Charlotte spilled the beans, "Most of Henry's is on purpose. He's been trying to look better. Most of mine is hormonal. All the cuddling and stuff releasing those endorphins in my system. The oxytocin making anxiety, depression and intestinal problems vanish, and maybe that's true for him too, but as far as I know, he's gotten the same level of attention from girls as usual. Meanwhile, boys' interest in me has tripled since we got together."

"Tripled?" Henry repeated. Honestly, it was the only part that he really even understood. "You got three times the guys trying to get up in your space, now?"

Jasper chuckled, "Have you not noticed this?" Henry glared at him for asking that out loud, because now Charlotte was looking at him, like she wondered the same thing.

"I mean… I didn't put any numerical value on it!" Henry said. Charlotte and Jasper nodded.

"Yep, tripled," she said. "Points of the study include not only the value that these boys don't place in girls before they're coupled, but how they respond to replies from the girls whenever they do finally take notice. Do they accept her civil rejection? Do they refute her disinterest by talking themselves up or talking down on her partner? Do they become aggressive or defensive about her rejection? Are they more understanding in certain circumstances of rejection? Do they even want her, or are they simply interested because she's now unavailable, because she perhaps looks better, or because possibly her confidence has shifted? I'm looking at a lot of different angles for this. I'd love to interview the two of you."

"Cool," Jasper said.

Henry wondered, "Why would you interview me?"

"Because, you're a guy."

"Yeah, but I don't do stuff like that."

"Didn't you ask Chloe to hang out _after _Sidney asked you if it was okay if _he _asked her out?" Charlotte asked.

"Why are you bringin up old stuff?" Henry asked back.

.

His dreams were changing. At first, they went from kissing dreams, to cuddling, to heavy petting, to riskier kissing and he just knew that they were going to enter into the beyond kissing phase, but now… He was having interference dreams. Like, he and Charlotte are heavy duty making out and suddenly, guys are calling her phone, knocking on the doors and windows, sending flowers, and even emerging from beneath the bed and out of the closet to try to see if they could be next. He woke up four times in one night before he went through their texts to see all of Char's cute night and morning messages and was able to go back to sleep.

He wasn't well off in the morning. He threw on some clothes, washed his face, brushed his teeth and didn't even touch his hair. Piper left early, so they were walking. _Great. _When he was THIS tired. Charlotte and Jasper were walking ahead of him and he was holding a thermos of coffee, despite it being way too hot for coffee. Should have iced it, but he was pressed for time after pressing the snooze on his phone five times. "Henry, are you alright?" Charlotte wondered.

"I can't stop thinking about all of these guys trying to get with you. It kept waking me up last night. I didn't get much sleep." He yawned.

"Why would you lose sleep over that?" Jasper wondered. "I mean, I could see if Charlotte was trying to get with other guys, but not the other way around. If anything, that would make me sleep _better, _knowing that all these guys are trying to get my girl, and she decided on me, instead. That seems like a super cool feeling. I get chills just imagining that'll happen someday." Henry tilted his head. He _hadn't _thought about it that way.

Charlotte shrugged her shoulders and said, "You'd be surprised the things that can bother your subconscious. One time, I had a recurring dream that I was ordering tea and every time, the barista would ask me if I wanted cream, and every time, I'd say no, and every time, the barista would look me right in the face and put cream into my tea and then serve it to me."

"That's not so bad," Jasper said. "I like cream in my tea."

"But, I told him 'no!'" Charlotte argued.

"Yeah, well I had a dream that Charlotte's half naked and we're making out."

"Tell us more," Jasper said. Charlotte just frowned.

"And I look over and there's a dude in my BED, and he asks, 'You gonna finish that, Bruh?" Charlotte turned up her nose.

Jasper said, "That took an unexpected turn."

"Yeah. That was all of my dreams, all night. Usually, I'm having a nice little pg 13 or pushing the envelope experience with my girlfriend. Last night - Dudepocalypse in my bedroom."

"You should lay off the caffeine in the mornings, cut down on junk food in the evenings and maybe have some chamomile or warm milk before bed and light a lavender candle," Charlotte said. Henry groaned with each suggestion.

"What you should do is make out with Charlotte more," Jasper said.

"Go on," Henry said. Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"Think about it. If you have all these daylight memories of the last times you two were making out, and there are no dudes to be found anywhere, the likelihood of them invading your dreams will have to lessen. Your real life experience will influence your sleep experience."

"That sounds like good science and good common sense," Henry observed.

"No it doesn't!" Charlotte snapped. "Try MY method first, maybe even some melatonin after dinner. And, if none of that _actually scientifically sound _stuff works, then we'll discuss Jasper's weird, but not necessarily unpleasant plan."

"Can we just make out more, on principle?" Henry wondered.

"What principle?" She asked.

"That I want to?"

"That's not…" She rolled her eyes and went to her locker.

"She didn't say no," Jasper told him.

"Yeah."

.

Henry got himself some melatonin, a lavender candle, chamomile tea and downloaded some sleep sounds on his phone. After dinner and a shower, he was already plenty tired from the few nights of interrupted sleep and patrolling Swellview with Captain Man. He climbed into bed, with the sounds of a brook, the scent of his candle, a belly full with the taste of chamomile on his lips and honestly, the only thing that would be more perfect would be if Charlotte was cuddled up with him. He started thinking about what if she spent a night one night? How far would things go? Would they…? He smiled. Probably, some day.

She sent him his good night text: _Really hope you get some sleep tonight, Hen. I'm rooting for you to have some rest. You should know, Jasper was right. I'm not interested in any guy who ever tries to talk to me. I'm interested in the one that I have. Sweet dreams. Good night._

He replied: _Already sleepy. Thanks for the advice. You're the best. Love you, Char. _

And he fell asleep and slept through the night. By the time he woke up, he couldn't even remember whether or not he'd had a dream. But, he had a few texts. He figured his good morning ones. He smiled and opened them.

_*Blushing emoji* Love you too, Hen._

… _Did you mean that like "love ya" Love you, or like "I love you." Love you._

_Either way, I love you._

_Too. _

_Or, just I love you. Depending on what you meant._

_You know what? Forget it! Good night. Love you. Nevermind._

_Hey, Good Morning. Sorry about last night's text rants. I'm gonna head to school by myself. Sorry again. Have a good day._

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.." He dialed her number Pretty Cute & Hot blinked on the screen as it rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Don't apologize."

"That was really uncool how I suddenly made things really weird like that, though."

"It was actually adorable, and I wanna see you today. So, please don't walk to school by yourself?"

"Okay. How did you sleep?"

"Good."

.

Charlotte got to Henry's place before Jasper did. She didn't feel like waiting on him and she wanted to get whatever might happen this morning with her and Henry out of the way. Whenever she got there, though, Henry was outside waiting for her. "Hey," she said. He turned around, super excited to see her and had some flowers in his hand that it looked like he went and picked himself this morning or something.

"Hey!" He said. He extended them to her. "I picked these for you, because I didn't have time to do something else."

She kindly accepted them and he grabbed her into an embrace, complete with a kiss and told her, "I love you too, Char." She just smiled against his lips, holding her wildflower bouquet in one hand and leaning against him.

"So, did you two do the whole more making out thing?" Jasper said as he walked up.

They both ignored the question and the three headed for school.


	7. So, What Are We Doing This Summer?

_It was called to my attention that Henry's age was confirmed as 17 in either the Frittle episode or his birthday episode (I've not repeatedly watched those, so I didn't remember), which would either put them in their senior year or put Henry as a graduating 18 year old next year, which does happen, so I'll go with that._

_**So, What Are We Doing This Summer?**_

There was no Sweet Sixteen thing that she wanted to do. To be fair, her parents wanted to throw her something and invite her friends over, but she just wanted a nice dinner, some cake, maybe a museum trip and to look over college packets. Last birthday, she went to a show that she wanted to see with her friends, but it was such a hectic night that she almost didn't get to see it.

That's how plans with the friends tended to go. Unexpected and hectic. So, Sweet Sixteen, she was doing things with her parents! And that was all that there was to it!

"But, what about the time WE want to spend with you?" Jasper asked.

She furrowed her eyebrows and handed him a pamphlet. "Here. Underline cons in red, highlight pros in pink."

"What is this?"

"College brochures."

"Why are you looking at college brochures, we still have more than a year of high school left?"

She laughed, "And I very well can't figure out what schools to apply to _after _graduation. Senior year student council has so much to do for all of those senior ceremonies, I want to make sure I've given myself time to think about where I'm going."

"Why not Swellview University?" He wondered.

"It's on my list, but not my top choice. I want an HBCU or an Ivy League school."

"I'm gonna go right there to Swellview U. It's a good school!"

"I'm sure it's great. It's just not exactly what I want," she said and they heard the sound of Captain Man and Kid Danger coming down the tubes.

She smiled at them as they approached, resuming some kind of debate. "Dude, there's no way that a giant pancake could best a giant waffle. The waffle has ridges!" Henry fussed, then kissed her on the cheek.

"What are you two even TALKING about?"

"Animated and animatronic breakfast foods," Ray said, popping gum into his mouth. "Henry thinks that sausage would be more of a romantic than bacon and that a giant waffle could defeat a giant pancake in a fight to the death, covered in butter and syrup!"

"HOW do these subjects get started?" Charlotte wondered as they changed back.

"What about a crepe?" Jasper wondered.

Henry and Ray both laughed and repeated, "Crepe?"

"Oh yeah, a giant CREPE can fight!" Ray taunted.

Henry added, "Guess it's gonna just roll up to the scene, since he's gonna lose his innards if he steps up." The duo fell on each other laughing. Jasper sighed and shook his head.

"I'm not sure why you entered their weird little world."

"Third Wheel Syndrome has me sensitive, I think."

Henry took a seat next to Charlotte and asked Jasper, "What do you mean?"

"Since the two of you got together, I'm feeling left out," Jasper admitted.

"How? I just spent four hours stuck in a vat of scrambled eggs and country gravy. You and Char have been here going through…" he picked one up from in front of Charlotte and she sucked her teeth. "College brochures." He set it down, "Jasp you're leaving for college too?"

"No. I'm marking pros and cons for Charlotte. I'm going to Swellview University. We talked about this."

"I know! I was gonna be super upset if you were gonna run off on me. Bad enough she will be." He pointed a thumb to Charlotte.

"What happens when that happens?" Jasper wondered.

"It's at least a year in the future. We haven't even discussed what we're doing this summer," Charlotte said. The three were quiet for a moment. Ray and Schwoz were talking among themselves a few feet away.

Henry broke the collective silence between their trio by asking, "So, what are we going to do this summer"

"There's my birthday.." Jasper said then squinched his face and shook his head, "You weren't talking to me, were you?"

"I was talking to you both. Anybody have plans already?"

"I never have plans," Jasper said, almost certain that Henry was definitely only talking to Charlotte.

She said, "Same old same old for me. Summer Youth Program in June. Beginning of July trip with my parents. The only thing different this year is I'm going to add three or four campus tours of whichever colleges have the least cons and most pros."

"Need company?" Henry wondered. She furrowed her eyebrows and actually looked up at him. "Just to you know, make sure that you enjoy yourself despite the work."

"I love college tours. I'll enjoy myself," she said.

Henry pouted, "Fine." She looked questioningly at the sky about his salty tone, but left it alone. Henry sighed, "Jasper, do you think you'll want to spend any time with me this summer?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Jasper cheered. Charlotte rolled her eyes. She hadn't said that she wasn't going to spend any time with him.

In fact, her visits would be four weekends from the entire summer. Her Youth Program was on Thursdays. Her trip was two weeks. Aside from that, she was pretty sure she'd see both of these clowns every other summer moment. She'd tuned out the boys making plans without her whenever she heard Jasper declare, "It's gonna be super hard for us to do these things whenever you and Charlotte are married and stuff."

Henry shook his head and Charlotte chimed in, "Whenever what?"

Jasper reminded her, "Remember that whole hashtag Henlotte thing?"

"That was a joke, Bro," Henry said, laughing a little uncomfortably. "Nobody actually thought that I was proposing or that we were gonna be kissing. That's why it was so hilarious."

"Yeah, but you are kissing. You kiss a lot. You're together. Charlotte's thinking about her upcoming colleges before junior year end. Do we really believe she's not thinking beyond that?" Henry's head turned sharply and quickly to Charlotte.

She scoffed and said, "Don't look so panicked. As it turns out, I've been focused enough on my educational future that I haven't been circling anything in bridal books on the off chance that my boyfriend ever wants to me to participate in the antiquated institution of marriage."

Henry sighed, relieved, "Oh thank God. Wait. So… You never wanna get married, at all? To anybody?"

"Honestly, it's never crossed my mind. I've had one stupid boyfriend and I'm only 16. Why I would daydream about becoming someone's less respected partner is beyond me."

"Less respected?" Jasper repeated.

But Henry was stuck on "Stupid boyfriend?"

Charlotte snatched her brochures from Jasper and explained, "Married women are taken less seriously than their married male counterparts in the corporate world. Whether I go into STEM, academia, politics, business, or even if my degree proves useless and I wind up regretting decisions in retail - women are already valued less and when you add a wedding ring, they're expected to be full time workers and full time homemakers while Daddy retreats into his little solo space to unwind after his hard day's work. And don't let her become a mom! She doesn't get the necessary time off to be the kind of mother that everyone expects. Simultaneously, whatever kind of mother she is, the workplace thinks is too much." She was stuffing her bag and then looked at Henry, "And for the record, just because I haven't thought about it doesn't mean that I need your graphic depictions of relief about it!" She snatched her bag and headed for the elevator.

Jasper called out, "Okay, but that explanation of the workplace tells that you've definitely thought about it."

She glared at him and snapped, "That information is common knowledge to women!"

As the elevator door shut, Henry looked confused. "So.. Am I supposed to be thinking about marriage, or not?"

"I think that you shouldn't be, because Charlotte doesn't have marriage plans, but maybe if it crosses your mind, try to not seem repulsed by Charlotte being your wife? Her execution of the subject was all over the place."

"The place of lies," Ray said. "Women _wanna _get married. It's their reward for being good girlfriends!"

"That's a gross oversimplification of like everything involved in what you said," Henry commented. "Honestly, now that I think about it, Charlotte has literally never mentioned anything about weddings or marriage or anything like it. Not even so much as a "I'll play this song someday at my wedding."

Ray commented, taking a seat by Henry, "That's probably because she's been resigned to the fact that nobody's ever gonna marry her. I mean, she's the worst, amirite?"

"You're not," Jasper said, at the same time Henry said, "No."

"So, either of you can picture having Charlotte there, every single day, nagging you, telling you what to do, why this is unsafe or that's unwise?"

"That sounds like every day of my life since 5th grade," Jasper said.

"Yeah! Char is the smart one. We all know that. We need someone like that everyday!"

Ray muttered, "Still the worst."

"What is your problem with Charlotte?" Henry asked, exasperated."I mean, what if this _does _go different for us than my other relationships and it winds up being something real and lasting. Do I always have to worry that you're gonna be a butt to her?"

Ray laughed, "Yeah. I've known this was coming for a long time. I'm not treating her any differently no matter what status you have. Because as far as I'm concerned you've always been endgame… Also, she's the worst."

"Because she forces you to have to be better?" Jasper wondered.

Ray groaned and mumbled, "For your information, yes."

.

Charlotte came home and her uncle was on the couch, watching TV. _What else was new? _"Hey, Uncle Roscoe.

"Hey, Niece! You wanna watch the Kids Danger cartoon with me?"

"No. I've gotta look over college info so Mom and Dad will be able to plan my visits in between their orchestras and excavations. Speaking of, are they out tonight?"

"The Swellview Opera House. Your mom says there's a casserole just for you in the oven. Don't worry, I don't want whatever that is. I'm ordering a pizza." She nodded, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to discuss her college choices with them tonight. "You wanna watch one of your wedding dress shows?" Uncle Roscoe wondered.

"No."

"Not even Say Yasss, This is Your Drass?" He turned off the TV and wondered, "What's wrong, Tiny?"

"Sometimes, I feel like an outsider. Even in my own home and even with my only friends. Like, we're all sharing this one life, but nobody's on the journey with me and those that are on the journey, we're not on the same page."

"You know, I was an outsider like that too. Shoot, still to this day, as a starving artist."

"How can you be starving when you live here and eat everything we have?"

"I ain't eat that grass casserole your mom made you."

"I'm sure you mean bean sprouts," she said, "And that's not the whole casserole…" The doorbell rang and she looked at him. He reached for the remote control and she gave him a look. "I'll get it." She went to the door and by the time she peeked out of the peephole to see Henry nervously bouncing, Uncle Roscoe was laughing at something on the television. She called, "I'm gonna step outside and talk to my friend, Unc."

"Girl, I'm watching my shows," he said. Basically, he didn't care.

She opened the door and stepped outside. Henry laughed, "Your friend? Something you need to tell me?" He joked, awkwardly.  
"What do you need, Henry?" She asked, sounding irritated.

"I need to explain what happened earlier."

"Okay."

"So… Jasper was talking about marriage and we've never spoken about that, because neither of us are thinking that far ahead into us. But, whenever I seemed relieved, it wasn't because I think I'd never wanna marry you or something. I just thought that we were both in the same space - a space where that's not even a conversation yet. So, I'm sorry if I sounded insulting to you."

She shrugged her shoulders, "We rushed really fast into the entire boyfriend-girlfriend thing. There's no need for us to rush anything into anything else. So, it's fine."

"But, you seemed upset."

"Yeah. For the reason that I told you, but it's not a big deal. Honestly, I have other things to be upset about. Maybe it just landed on you. So, _I'm_ sorry."

"You wanna talk about your things?" He asked.

She sighed and leaned against the front door. "You know how my parents and I go on a trip every summer together?"

"Yeah?"

"This year is the last one. Next year, they're sending me on a solo trip after graduation to see the world myself before college."

"That sounds awesome."

"But, I hardly see them now and I just want them to go over the pros and cons of these colleges with me. I know that sounds silly to other people, but it's a huge decision to make and I wish sometimes that they'd be more involved instead of just trusting my judgement. They raised me to be independent and they don't realize that sometimes, I could use just a little dependency, you know?"

Henry nodded, "Yeah, I get that. I haven't been able to depend on my parents in quite a while. But… I've always been able to depend on my friends. So, if you just need someone to lean on, I literally have nothing better to do than here for you." Henry offered her a hug and she smiled a small smile and accepted it. When she was hugging him, he said, "And it'd be excellent, I think… some time in the far future… you know?" She looked up at him. "IF we were thinking about that."

She nodded, "If I was gonna sell myself out in that way, it'd be with my best friend." He laughed. "I meant everything that I said about marriage! The only way that I'd be on board is if it was handled like a business arrangement with someone I trust."

"You trust like two people," he chuckled.

"Yep. And they'd both be IN the marriage."

"Me and?"

She stared at him and suggested, "Think it through."

"OH, YOU!"

"I already regret this unofficial contract."

"Fortunately, we've got a long time to even think about that. We haven't even discussed.. the physical evolution of our relationship." Her eyes widened and she wondered if he was talking about what she thought he was. He noticed and quickly changed the subject, "Or what _you and me_ are doing this summer!"

She relaxed and nodded, "Aside from the few weeks, four weekends and Thursdays, I'm all yours…" He raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I'm open! I mean my time is free! I have a casserole to check on. I gotta get inside!" She rushed back in, shut the door and Henry shook his head and left. "Why would bring that up, Henry? She was already having a day. I mean, sure.. you wanna discuss it. But, you haven't been together that long and it was a FLUKE that you even got her. This happened kinda haphazardly. You're gonna screw it up if you keep being weird!"

Charlotte leaned against the door, breathing hard. _Are… we THERE yet? _She glanced out of the window and saw Henry look back at the house before walking away with his head down. A few minutes later, she got a text_: Hey. Sorry if I scared you bringing up THAT. I won't mention it again. I don't want stuff weird between us. Call me when you don't feel awkward._

She sighed with relief and replied instantly: _Thanks, Hen. You're a great friend and honestly the best boyfriend._

_Henry: Not stupid boyfriend?_

_Charlotte: Not at all. ILU_

_Henry: SAME._


	8. So, Hate to Burst Your Bubble

_Something that bamonstrash sort of requested that I wanted to do, but didn't want to make a whole story for (I had no idea that you were also unbotheredbeauty) _

**So, Hate to Burst Your Bubble (But, This is Mine)**

The last time that they saw these kids, there was a disturbing amount of swooning and fawning over Henry that legit made Charlotte pretty uncomfortable. It wasn't because of any attachment to him back then. It was just weird. This time around, she was in a much different headspace.

She and Henry had been dating now for months, and they were both pretty serious about it. They spent most of her free time together and with the Game Shakers staying in town again (this time to hopefully do what they set out to do the last time around), she didn't think much of it.

They already "knew" Piper from their first visit to Swellview, so they'd contacted her again to rent the house. The Harts remembered it going "surprisingly well" last time, somehow, and approved it. Therefore, Henry would have to spend a little more time at home that week… but not so much as last time. Which meant that Charlotte was gonna spend a little more time there, too.

All Henry planned on doing was chilling when company was over (Jasper), then chilling with Char in his room when Jasp was gone. Her summer clothes had been hitting the spot. She never really wore revealing stuff over the years, but since they got together, she'd started showing more skin and he realized that might be for his benefit. What else could he do but fully revel in the new looks she served? She had the crop tops, tube tops and short shorts WORKING for her.

Piper rented the house out, but as soon as their parents were gone and she collected her fee, she vanished, too. Which meant that those four kids kept knocking on Henry's door to ask for things. He and Charlotte were into some pretty intense kissing when that one girl knocked, then opened the door and asked, "Are we able to use the laundry room supplies?"

Charlotte had jumped off of the bed and practically across the room and a very frustrated Henry snapped, "Use whatever you want! Nobody else knock on this door. I'm doing very important things, here!"

He heard her report to the others, "His friend is here. I think they're doing work for Captain You Know Who. He wants some privacy. Said use it whatever we want." But, by that time, Charlotte was ready to head home.

"If you leave, I'm killing those kids," Henry half joked.

"What do you think Captain You Know Who would say about that?" She teased. He was pouting. "Chill out. You've had more than enough kisses today, _Friend_."

He folded his arms, "I wanted ALL the kisses!"

"See you tomorrow," she said. On her way out, she saw that the kids seemed to be working in the living room. "Bye, kids," she said.

"Bye Charlotte!" Hudson cheered, waving excitedly. Trip gave her a peace sign and Kenzie smiled a little bit. Babe was already heading back upstairs, probably to pester Henry again. Charlotte called out specifically, "Bye Babe!"

"Bye, Charpay!" She said from upstairs. Charlotte rolled her eyes and left.

.

Charlotte was at work early to finish up some things that she had left the day before and to make sure that Ray had not been neglecting calls. So, she was there whenever Henry came in, exhausted looking and flopped himself on the couch. "Morning, Hen. Long night after I left?"

"The longest. I had to bribe the kids with the promise of visiting the Man Cave again to get them to go to bed and leave me alone."

"The kids, or _Babe_?"

"Babe… and Hudson. Trip's a cool kid and Kenzie's got a good head on her shoulders. They went away fairly easily. Hudson… was super hyper and Babe was really talkative. But, they let me test out games that they were working on. They have some good ideas in progress."

"What did Babe say when she came to your room?" Charlotte casually asked, not talking her attention off of what she was doing.

Henry thought for a moment, trying to remember. The dang girl had said so much! "She asked if I was done with work for the night and offered to keep me company."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow and wondered, "And your response?"

"I was getting ready to shower."

"She offer to keep you company there?" Charlotte asked, snarky about it.

"No!" Henry answered, not getting her tone. "I'm naked in there!" She simply rolled her eyes and continued working. "Anyway, they'll be here after they've had breakfast and washed up. Then hopefully, that's the last of them I have to see. I like them, just don't feel like them impeding on my time this way. Do you know where Piper's been?"

"She went to the water park with the Bilskys. That's why she needed that money. Billy didn't want her to come if she was gonna steal and cheat like his family."

"Ugh. Rude. So what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander?"

"She's very likely gonna keep her money and steal and cheat anyway," Charlotte shrugged her shoulders. The elevator sounded and they both looked to see Babe stepping off, by herself, all dolled up. Henry rolled his eyes and laid back down. Charlotte rolled hers and returned to her work.

"Hi, Henry, Charmin!"

"Her name is _Charlotte_," Henry said, not getting up or even returning the greeting. "I thought all of you were coming after breakfast and stuff. I haven't even had coffee or donuts."

"They were taking too long to decide what they were going to eat. I don't usually have breakfast anyway. Trying to keep my girlish figure." She posed, showing off this alleged figure.

Charlotte commented, "You might not know this, because I think they just came out with it yesterday, but they're actually very many healthy options for breakfast."

Henry sat up now, with an eyebrow raised, looking at Charlotte's back. _What was that he'd just heard in her tone? _Whatever it was, he simply replied, "Charlotte's likely got plenty of fresh fruit, if you're hungry."

"Charlotte's got fresh fruit, for Charlotte," Charlotte said, with a tight smile. _There it was again! What the heck had gotten into her? _

Babe commented, "It's fine. I think she and I have different ideas of what kind of bodies that we want."

Now, Charlotte turned around in the chair completely, to check to see if this girl was for real. She had sat right next to Henry as she said this, and very close to him, at that. He smiled and slid over a little bit.

"Some of us want healthy functional bodies," Charlotte informed Babe.

Babe slid closer to Henry again and wondered, "What kind of body do you prefer, Henry?"

Charlotte got up and started gathering her things. There was no way that she was about to endure a day of this, or even a morning.

"The healthy functional type hasn't steered me wrong, yet," he said, nearly falling off of the other side of the booth moving away from her. "Char… You goin' someplace?" He asked, nervously. Because, she couldn't _possibly _be about to leave him here with this clingy girl who was throwing herself at him very uncomfortably. _At least tell her off or something, so I don't have to! _

"Yeah, I'm not feeling too great. I think I'll go for a run and maybe feed the rest of my leftover fruit to the ducks at the pond." Henry definitely noted that she had plenty of fruit she could've shared with Babe, so she must have purposefully wanted her to realize that she wasn't entitled to anything that was Charlotte's… _including Henry, _which she made known within the next few moments when she leaned over him and gave him a long kiss on the lips.

Now, anybody that knew Charlotte could tell you that Charlotte didn't give Henry long kisses on the lips in front of people. It took her weeks to even give him short kisses in front of people. She also generally pulled away from his short kisses if people were present. This wasn't just a kiss, it was a declaration! And Henry was HERE for it! He grabbed her, nearly pulling her on top of him to return the kiss until _she _saw fit to pause. She nonchalantly and discretely glanced towards Babe as she wiped her peach lip gloss on Henry's bottom lip with her thumb. "See you later, Babe." Okay, so not only was it SO HOT to Henry that Charlotte was clearly feeling some kind of way about Babe flirting with him, but that take charge, possessive "back off sister" kiss that she had given him was the fuel of his dreams. All he wanted right now was her to straddle him on this floor.

Babe's eyes and mouth were wide with shock and shame. She forced herself to give a small wave and say in a quiet voice, "Bye, Charlotte."

Charlotte headed for the elevator and commented, "Girl, you look flushed. If I were you, I'd really get that diet in check. Nutritionists will tell you that unhealthy eating habits can lead to bad skin." She stepped onto the elevator fighting the urge to laugh. _Was that mean? Yeah, but eff her, though._

Babe and Henry were silent for a while, then he wondered, "Did you maybe wanna get something from the auto snacker?" She blinked for the first time since seeing that kiss and shook her head. "I'm gonna have churros for breakfast. Char's big on healthy. I just like whatever is goood." He jumped up, some pep in his step, suddenly revived for the day and humming to himself as he headed for the snacker. "Big plate of churros," he sang in a high pitch voice, pressing the button.

Ray came out of the back, checking his text from Henry: _Guests in Man Cave. Don't be Ray. _

He quickly turned and dodged being noticed by Babe, but Henry saw him and gasped whenever he did. Ray changed into Captain Man with disdain in his face and marched up to Henry, "Guests? In my Man Cave? What makes you think you had the right?" He snatched the plate of churros from Henry's hands and shook his head. "Girl child, today was not a day that Captain Man planned on having guests."

She nodded her head, super sad and tried not to cry, "I'll tell my friends not to bother."

Captain Man's chewing slowed as he wondered what in the world he was witnessing in this girl's behavior, but he wasn't too distracted to swat Henry's hand when he reached for a churro. "Hey. What's wrong with you? You're in the Man Cave with Captain Man. Why are you looking like a sad sourpuss?"

"To be fair, you just kicked her out of the Man Cave. Like, on sight."

"She looked like that when I came in," he said and tossed the plate behind him. Henry scoffed at the churros flying everywhere and tried to catch some. _Gosh dang that Rick Twitler! Also, I am NOT cleaning this mess up. _He walked back to the auto snacker for another plate of churros while Captain Man interrogated Babe. "So, Girl. What's your problem?"

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Are you lying to Captain Man?"

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I just… Would prefer not to talk about this right now…"

Henry stuffed a churro into his mouth and said, "She was doing fine up until Charlotte left. I think she felt uncomfortable because of the goodbye kiss."

"Charlotte gave her a goodbye kiss?" Captain Man asked, extremely shocked. He placed a hand over Babe's and said, "I understand your distress. Not only is that terrifying, but what sense did it even make?" Babe was now sad _and _confused… "Wait!" He pointed at Henry, "Is this some kind of weird fantasy for you?"

Henry sat down and shook his head, "Charlotte didn't kiss her, Dude. She kissed me, in front of her. Like lengthy lip kiss with tongue."

"That sounds less believable than Charlotte kissing her, to be honest." Henry made a face. "Come on, Henry. Charlotte kissed you? IN FRONT of this girl? Why would she do that?"

"Uh duh, she's my girlfriend."

"Uh, duh. She's _been _your girlfriend and she still doesn't kiss you in front of people. Ever. Wonder why she'd do it now? Today, in this place, in front of this girl?" He mused, thoughtfully. "Oooh! She's scared you're gonna cheat with a cuter, younger girl!"

Henry scoffed, "None of that is true. Well.. she is younger. No offense, Babe."

"This girl is WAY more your type than Charlotte."

"I don't have a "type" and Charlotte clearly is within my type, if I do have one, otherwise why would she be my girlfriend?"

Captain Man told Babe, "I still think it might be an elaborate hoax. So, if you really want Charlotte, time will reveal if that's possible for you." He patted her hand. "Now, get out of my Man Cave. I'm off the clock." Babe got up,not the least bit comforted as Ray stole Henry's second plate of churros and walked off.

Henry rolled his eyes and offered, "I'll take you somewhere for breakfast. Maybe to meet up with the clique."

They were quiet on the way. Henry thought he'd be happy to see her shut up, but now he was worried that Char had crushed the poor girl. "So… You know where your friends are? I can escort you to 'em."

She smiled and nodded, "That would be very kind of you." Then, more silence. They started walking in the direction of where her friends had gone for breakfast and she wondered, "Why doesn't it say on any of your social media that you're in a relationship?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "We're not that flashy with our personal business. I guess with the whole secret identity thing, I've kinda gotten pretty used to just keeping my business to myself, and Char's _always _been a private person."

"Okay, so why didn't you tell me? We've talked a lot, online, over the phone, and since I've been in town. Never once did you even suggest that you were dating somebody." He laughed uncomfortably. "I'm glad that this amuses you."

"I'm amused that I'm being interrogated for something that you're not entitled to knowing, yes. I didn't tell you, because I saw no reason to. We chat sometimes about video games. We've talked on the phone a limited number of times about very generic things. I don't owe you my life events."

"Maybe not, but I think that you know that I liked you and it could have been polite for you to say, "By the way, I have a girlfriend now." How did this even happen? She's very uptight and boring, and honestly it seems like Captain Man agrees with me that you could do better…" Henry stopped walking and glared at her. She giggled a little and tried to clean it up, "I just mean that the two of you don't seem to fit together."

"Okay, maybe we don't _seem _to fit together, to a complete stranger. The good news for me is that you don't have to understand it. The bad news for you is that you don't have the right to say anything negative about her. If she's uptight and boring, then that must be what I want, and I never asked you your opinion, anyway. So, yeah, no. It's not happening. You'll not be talking like that about her in front of me. You better call Kenzie with that BS." He started walking again, more than a little pissed off and she quickly followed, apologizing for her words. He barely heard her. Once she was at the diner with her friends, Henry was going to leave, but Charlotte happened to be there with them. She had her gym bag and was dressed for a workout, glistening from her run and laughing with the others. So, he came inside.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he wondered.

She pointed to the group, "I ran into them after my run and Trip treated me to a latte."

Henry chuckled, "Moving in on my woman, Trip?"

Trip brushed dust off of his shoulders and said, "Technically, that's my ex-fake-fiancee, so you moved in on mine." Babe sat down and grabbed a menu, silently. "What about you? Stepping out behind her back with Babe?" Babe kicked Trip under the table and he let out a loud, "Ow!"

"No, she got kicked out of the," he looked around and whispered, "That cave, you know… I felt bad and brought her to you all."

Charlotte looked at him, wondering what he wasn't saying, but this wasn't the time. Instead, she announced, "It was pretty good having the time to chat with everyone without all of the mindless flirting, but now, I think I'll take my leave. Maybe I'll see you later, guys."

As she headed out Henry said, "Try not to stay out too late," then chased his girlfriend down. "Char, wait up." She paused as he called from the door and whenever he reached her, he took her hand, gave her a kiss and started walking with her. She smiled at the Game Shakers yet again, all watching them from their table. Babe was pretending not to with her face in the menu. "So… are we into PDA now, or only when Babe is nearby?"

She sighed and leaned against him, "I don't know. I'm not sure what came over me, but she just KEPT ON FLIRTING and flinging herself at you and completely disregarding me as a person. Last night, she called me _Charpay!" _

He gasped, "Like the little dog?"

"I was thinking like the Disney character, but either way, learn my name if you're going to try to compete with me for my man."

"There's no competition," Henry told her. "And, I think she got your message, loud and clear. Though, she asked me why I didn't tell her. Like… You're a 14 year old girl who I have only ever casually spoken with about shared interests, meaning specifically videogames and dog videos. Why would I tell her anything?"

"Maybe she thought that you were leaving the door open for her behavior, and honestly, can you blame her?" He stopped and let go of her hand. She folded her arms and tilted her head, "What? You don't think that you should've nipped it in the bud? Because, I happen to think that if Hudson or Trip was acting that way around me and I didn't clarify on the spot that it wasn't going down, you'd be pouting about it."

"I mean, yeah, but that's different."

"How?"

"Because it's in your personality to do that. I hate having to say mean things to people, even if it might be true. I don't like to hurt people's feelings."

"Oh, so _I _like to hurt people's feelings?" He sighed and shook his head. "Tell me what you mean."

"You stand up for things more than me. I'd rather just take it easy and let things fizzle out. You like to have conversations about stuff and try to control the direction of things."

"Never thought being a mature person with good communication skills could be seen as a negative trait, but go off, I guess."

"I'm not saying it's negative! I'm saying that's you, but it isn't me, so don't expect it to be me."

"And I'm saying that I didn't appreciate you letting that girl think she had a chance with you by not getting her together when she was flirting with you right in front of me!" She squealed, then marched off.

Henry whispered, "How the heck did we go from kissing to fussing?" He followed her, calling her name, but she didn't slow down. She made him catch up to her. "Hey! I didn't know that it was bothering you like that. I thought it was only inconveniencing me and that after this weekend, it was gonna be over and done with. If I had known that it hurt you, of course I would have stood up for you. I just… Never think that you're thinking like that, about me. I always just presume that nothing bothers you, and you don't care about trivial things."

"I almost got attacked by a lion to avoid an awkward kiss with my best friend. I'm not as together and you keep painting me!" They both laughed, and then hugged, and then kissed. "I'm an actual disaster, sometimes. And I didn't like seeing her fawn over you. I didn't like the flirting. I didn't like you not correcting her behavior."

"Thank you for waiting until we were alone to say that. It means a lot that you didn't blast me in front of anybody. I won't let anything like that happen again." She smiled. "You'll be proud to know," he bragged, as they continued walking, "That I happened to have to tell her a thing or two for trying to call you some names."

"What?"

"She said you're uptight and boring! Can you believe that? Now, I'll tolerate those very rude but accurate words from Ray, but not from her!" Charlotte scoffed and looked at the sky, shaking her head.


	9. So, Are We Going to Discuss This, Or?

**So, Are We Gonna Discuss This, Or…?**

Charlotte and her pros and cons! She wished that she could be more impulsive, but that never hurt her before… Well… maybe. She was quite frigid in many ways and it meant a lot to her that her closest friends didn't care. But she and Henry were getting pretty close and serious. They were going into their last year of high school. They might not see much of each other beyond that and the girls around him were getting bolder and fresher all the time. Charlotte estimated that it was probably time for "the talk."

And how does one, Charlotte Page, go about having the talk? Well, she certainly wasn't going to just say "We need to talk about this." She could have and maybe should have, but that seemed to her to leave too much room for confusion. How could she possibly talk about something that she was only vaguely familiar with?

Charlotte prepared a Lincoln Douglas Debate to decide), researched STDs & STIs, sexual health risks vs benefits of sex, and high school relationship sustainability and success before and after sex before she even breached the subject with Henry. By the time she finished, she knew what she wanted to do. She was ready, but Henry had to be ready to. She had to be confident that he knew what she knew and they had to talk about it.

Breaching the subject sounded a lot like nervous energy in human form. "I've prepared a debate for you to feast your eyes upon.." she said, then awkwardly thought about how that was the nerdiest presentation she had ever made.

"No thanks," Henry said and handed the paper printout with various sticky notes and edits back to her. She flipped it to the front page, which was a bright yellow cover with bold black letters that read "**SEX"**, and much smaller subprint, "So, Are We Gonna Discuss This, Or…?" But, Henry only saw the largest word on the paper, and he snatched it from her and shoved it into his shirt. "What're you doing? Someone could've seen that!" He looked around the man cave for their friends, but Ray and Schwoz were in the middle of something and Jasper was down in the store.

"Someone _needs _to see it. You." She handed him green sticky notes and finished with, "Any notes or questions you have, use these. I don't want the version in our shared documents to get cluttered and you miss out on information, like you've been known to do."

He scoffed a few times as he placed the notes in his pocket and she went to the control panel. Where on Earth would he keep this thing, in the meantime? He rolled it up, put it in his back pocket, and checked on it with extreme paranoia the entire time he was there. Later on, whenever he was at home, the first thing that he did was make the time to read it. He lit some candles scented to help with concentration, made sure the lighting in the room was efficient, washed up, got into comfortable clothes and made himself comfortable - suggestions that Charlotte had given him for when he had to read a lot (because he honestly hated reading, most of the time) - and he settled with the document, the sticky notes and his pencil.

There were a lot of facts in this thing and there was a lot of science. There were risks that he didn't consider. There was social pressure that he had not thought about (regarding her). There was… A lot to stop and think about. By the time he finished, he knew what he wanted to do. He was not ready. They had to wait. There was going to be some deep thoughts about all of this fresh information.

He was no longer as sure as his body usually was when they were alone together. Reading her research, eloquently presented as an argument for and against it, he just wasn't sure if he measured up enough to put her in that position and to take on that type of responsibility.

Charlotte was sad to hear that, but respected his wishes and was relieved that these weren't issues that he thought about _after _making that decision. They could wait. It wasn't like she was frothing or anything. But honestly, if not Henry, what kind of person might she wind up with? Her research came across some horror stories of people who went to college, relationships fell apart and they wound up losing their virginity in some regrettable act of deviance and independence. She wanted it to be safe and comfortable with somebody that she loved and trusted. And she was Charlotte Page for crying out loud. Let's be real… It could take another lifetime for "somebody that she loved and trusted" to come along. Maybe, he just needed a little bit of time… to realize that she was most likely the greatest good that he was gonna get. She chuckled to herself as she had this thought.

The three of them had a sleepover at Henry's the weekend of Jasper's birthday. Jasper noticed that they were behaving oddly. For one thing, Henry wasn't uncontrollably and reflexively touching Charlotte every single chance that he got and hardly whispering inside jokes into her ear. Charlotte… Well, she seemed the same as always. So, Jasper had to presume that whatever the issue was, it was something with Henry. When it was semi-late, Charlotte announced, "I'm going to go to sleep." She got up, gathered her sleeping bag and headed upstairs.

"Goodnight, Charlotte!" Jasper said. She nodded her head and pointed at him, then glanced sadly at Henry and went upstairs. "Soooo… Did you two break up?"

"What? No. We just… Haven't really been intimate lately."

"Why not? I thought you two were really serious. What happened?"

Henry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "We talked about… You know… Doing the dance…"

"Which one? Like an Internet challenge?"

Henry groaned and whispered it into Jasper's ear. "YOU DID?"

"We only talked about it!" Henry shrugged his shoulders and had to admit, "I didn't know the first thing about doing, well, any of it. I ran over all the information she gave me, and I guess I just felt inadequate. I feel like not only do I not know enough, but if something were to happen… I would mess it all up. I never really thought about it before. I only knew that I wanted it and wanted her. But, if I'm just gonna be unskilled and unknowledgeable, what's the point? She'll judge me, and we both know it."

"How can she judge you when she only knows stuff about it in theory, herself?" Henry shrugged his shoulders. "What did she say to you?"

"That I'm her best friend, she loves me and whatever the emotional risks are, she's brave enough to face, because it's a journey with me."

"That sounds like somebody who wouldn't judge you."

"I don't want her to have to face emotional risks. Like what happens when she's away at college and I'm Kid Danger full time? Or when we've been together for so long that we never realized that we were never meant to be this, it was just convenient?"

"So… _You're _scared of the emotional risks."

"No! I'm not scared…" he bit his lip and sighed, "I'm terrified. What if I love her more and she gets me out of her system? I mean… I have to believe that a huge portion of her interest is physical attraction and curiosity."

"I don't feel like you're giving Charlotte much credit and that's not fair. She said herself that she loves you. As just her friend you should believe her. And the fact that Charlotte doesn't talk like that, you really should feel honored. Besides, if you don't do it, someone else will as soon as they get permission. So, you'll regret it forever if you don't take the opportunity. When she's gone off to college and comes back with some kinda sexy scientist, you'll kick yourself, and you'll probably try to kick him too. But, she's giving you first dibs and you turn her down? I don't understand that at all."

"I don't want first dibs I want _only_ dibs."

"For now, you've _got "_only dibs," but I can't imagine she'd wait forever for you."

So, Henry had more to think about. At some point, in the middle of the night, he left Jasper alone on the couch to go cuddle up with Charlotte again. He'd been avoiding too much contact with her since their discussion and now he not only missed her like crazy, but Jasper's advice frightened him into thinking he might lose her if he didn't get it together and grow up.

Charlotte was fast asleep, in her sleeping bag, near the window. Probably thought Henry would want his bed to himself… "Hey, Char?"

"Hmmm?"

"Hey, let's get in bed, okay, Babe?"

She sat up and looked at him, slightly angry for waking her up, but he picked her up and laid her in the bed. She rolled over, muttering but was back to sleep before he could even wrap himself around her body.

.

Jasper's basement birthday party was very much so an upgrade from the last time he'd done it. Full of soon to be seniors and a few graduates that he knew, plus Ray and Schwoz. Ray couldn't believe that he had willingly come here, but he heard that there would be fiesta sized churros and he felt like he deserved that.

Several minutes into his fourth chunk o' churro, he looked over at "the kids," because he heard Charlotte laugh kinda loud, and…

Well, she was sitting on top of a bench, Henry was leaning against it, _but _he was rested right in between her legs… facing her.

Ray was going to comment on it but, Henry turn to face Jasper and talk so he let it go. But, Henry was right there, for most of the day. Eventually, he moved to go to the bathroom. Charlotte got up for ice cream and churro. Whenever he returned, she sat in his lap, with his arms around her as she finished dessert, then when she was done, _she _was seated between _his _legs. They were just carrying on a conversation like that! He had to find Schwoz!

"Charlotte is publicly allowing Henry to be rested between her legs and vice versa!" Schwoz looked like he had no idea what that was supposed to mean. "Intimate Cuddling IN FRONT OF ONLOOKERS? Charlotte, Schwoz. This is Charlotte!"

Schwoz rolled his eyes and walked away saying, "Call me when you've got something juicy."

Ray realized that they must have done the deed and tried to get a confession out of Henry. Henry was annoyed by all of the questions such as, "Are you and Charlotte closer than ever before? Might one day that the two of you have become one?" This went on for a while before Charlotte announced that she had to go and Henry, as though that was some kind of dog whistle, cut off Ray mid sentence to rush to her so that they could leave together.

"Before you go, I'll need you to take another oath."

"What, here? At this party?"

"You need to immediately promise me that Kid Danger comes first, no matter what's in your mind, your eyesight, and…" he whispered, "your pants."

"Alright, I'm not saying any of that. See you later. Gotta go. Char's parents are gone and we're gonna have a Flick & Chill night."

"You'd better be chilling fully clothed!"

Henry's face told that was _not _in his plans, but he gave Ray a thumbs up anyway. "At least be safe," Ray said quietly.

"Dude.. I'm with _Charlotte. _I'm the safest man in Swellview."

Even though he knew that Henry meant because Charlotte was always efficient and thorough, Ray wanted to crack a joke about it being because nobody else in Swellview had ever, or ever would, get that close to Charlotte; but as the two of them took off up the stairs, hand in hand, he had nothing. Henry probably would be livid if he had said anything like that. The Kid was clearly all in with her now, no pun intended.


	10. So, What the Heck is Goin' On?

**So, What the Heck is Goin' On?**

Last year of school and Henry had senioritis on the very first day. His, Charlotte's, and Jasper's calendars were linked up for senior events and work schedules, and he was anxious seeing everything on Charlotte's plate. Stu-co meetings, yearbook committee, L.I.M.P. events, monthly 'girl time' with Piper (which Henry realized from now having access to her calendar that those fell upon Char's menstrual cycle, and learned after asking about how she could bear to be around Piper of all people during said time that the two of them were "synched up" for said cycles), his birthday, holiday breaks… Wait…

Near Henry's birthday, there were some blocked off days but he didn't see any notes. They were highlighted, but no notes were included. Maybe Charlotte was planning something? She was good at planning. Her Ray's Days of Fun had become excellent over the years. He wasn't going to dwell on it. He'd just like whatever she had planned, because honestly, he'd likely forget all about this until his birthday actually got closer. She also had several college appointments, and this, that and the other… "Hey, Char… Are you gonna schedule some us time? Because the copy of our year's schedule that I'm looking at is severely lacking that."

"Pick some free days and enter it in. You've got working fingers," she said, not looking up from her laptop, as she worked.

She had been working since they got out of school today, he just realized. "What are you doing?"

"I have a research paper due next week," she said.

"But, school _just _started! How do you already have a research paper?"

"I have three," she said. He groaned. If the rest of the school year was going to be like this, she would have very little time to spend with him! "Three research papers, two science projects, and I'm trying to make sure that I finish at least two versions of my application letters for college this month."

"Your what?"

She finally looked up at him and gave him a sympathetic smile, "I figured that you wouldn't be thinking about writing yours yet, so I sent you a document with the stuff that you should mention and the stuff that you definitely should not mention, for whenever you get around to writing it. I'll revise it after you've completed the first draft."

"When should I start on it?"

"Well, you should get on it right away, to be honest. The Dylexicon app has been glitchy, and I don't want your words to be too confused _and _be last minute."

"If the app is glitchy, they'll definitely be confused. Glitchy, how?"

"Well, you know how it's supposed to autocorrect the things that you get switched around? It's been switching around incorrectly written words, but not switching them around properly. Several dyslexic people have complained about it, because they depend so heavily on it's assistance and can't always tell that the words are still messed up. What you need is a top of the line voice to text app. Those are usually always dysfunctional, though."

"What needs to happen is that if colleges or institutions, or whatever know that people are dyslexic, they need to give us an option of an in person or over the phone presentation. Why, in this day in age does anybody still have to write anything? If they just met me and let me tell them who I am, instead of me writing to them about it, they'd be a hundred times more impressed."

Charlotte reached out and intertwined her fingers with Henry's and he smiled at her. "Hey. Whatever medium that we have to use, you know I'll help you out."

He couldn't help but melt at that, but realistically, "I mean, yeah, _now_… But, it's not like you can do that for the rest of my life."

She looked taken aback, but recovered quickly and smoothly said, "I'm almost absolutely certain that I'm definitely gonna outlive you. Therefore, as a matter of fact, I can do that for the rest of your life." Now, he was practically gushing. She pulled her hand back and resumed typing wondering, "What are you grinning about? You should've already known that I'll always help you out, no matter what."

"Yeah, but I like stuff like you promising to do that for the rest of your life."

"The rest of your life," she corrected him. He smiled and laid his head on her shoulder, then moved around to wrap himself around her from the back and lay his head on her pillow of curls. She shook her head and kept typing. It was sort of like having an overgrown adorable pet sometimes.

.

_For the rest of my life! Yeah. Of course! _Henry was a little bit irritated that Charlotte hadn't made the time that she promised to make for him. He'd put dates into their calendar and she'd change the color and make notes of why she couldn't make it or edit that she had something come up!

Now, he and Jasper were planning on going to Swellview University's Autumn meet and greet (which was HER idea, btw) and she had to bail because a publication wanted to speak with her about her study on relationships, availability and attractability from last school year! Which… Was awesome and he actually wanted to go with her, but she told him that he'd only be sitting in the waiting room while she spoke with the publisher and that wasn't a good enough usage of his time for him to miss out on the chance to rub elbows with staff and students at his future school!

So, he and Jasper made plans for a little staycation in a hotel near the university so that they could do the weekend tour, the mixer, and the assembly of interested applicants and Charlotte went to her thing… Only, she didn't.

Her location was on and Henry noticed that she was nowhere near the publisher's at the time that her appointment was for. He figured that maybe she rescheduled or something, so when he got a break, he gave her a call. "Hey… How'd your thing go today?"

"It went well. They're going to publish my studies in next month's issue and they're interested in me possibly writing other pieces for them. I'm honestly thinking about showing them my debate for the _you know what_ talk"

"That's awesome, Baby! When did you wind up going to see them?"

"4:00," she said without a second thought.

He twitched a little. _Was this a lie, or a simple mistake?_ "No, at 4, your location was turned on and that showed that you weren't there at that time."

"You calendar stalking me, Babe?" she joked. He was apprehensive though. _Why is she avoiding what I said? _She sighed and told him, "I actually left my phone behind by accident. I had to read magazines in the waiting room!"

Now, he felt relieved. He knew that there had to be an explanation. Even though… something still felt off. _Left her phone behind, where? _He couldn't remember the exact location of where she had registered, but it certainly wasn't her house. Instead of dwelling on it, he moved on. "Magazines? What is this, 1988?" He teased. He was looking at the calendar and noticed that she made sure to turn off her location, now. "So, what other plans do you have for the night? Wanna come hang out at our hotel, since you're done with your business?"

"My business is never done. I have some other things that I was gonna finish up while you two are gone. But, be sure to tell me all about it whenever you're back, okay? Gotta go, though."

"O...K. Okay. Well… I love you."

"Love you too. Click."

"Click." Henry stared at the phone for a while as Jasper waxed his belly. "Dude… I think that Charlotte might have lied to me."

"Why would she do that?" Jasper wondered, bracing himself to pull the wax strip from his belly.

"I don't know. That's what bothers me. What could she possibly feel like she has to hide from me?" Jasper ripped the strip off and let out a loud groan as he did. Henry turned up his nose at the whole scene, but his mind was stuck on what was happening with his girlfriend.

.

Charlotte's article was published and Henry bought actual copies for everyone, got his and hers framed, downloaded it on his phone, and made her a little congrats gift basket with balloons and flowers. "This is a lot," she said, trying not to gush too much over his excitement, but honestly he was just glad that she had at least told the truth about that. She had been weirdly secretive and kind of cold with him since that lie that he was sure that she told him and he was worried that they were possibly on their last legs.

"It's a lot, but not too much. You did something great! I want you to know that you're appreciated," he said. "Also, I was wondering if you wanna go half on Halloween costumes this year?"

"We've done team costumes before. Remember? But, then Piper got kidnapped by a monster and that kinda put a dampener on Halloween to be honest."

"Yeah, but I meant like maybe me and you, not the three of us…"

She gasped and offered, "But, Jasper will feel left out!"

"Dude, I already talked to him about it. Do you just not want to do this with me or something?" He kind of was fussing.

"Nothing like that. Sure, let's do it. Any ideas?"

"A couple. A few, actually! I was thinking Thor and Valkyrie, or Deadpool and Domino…"

"Henry! Those would take a lot of time to get prepared for. Why didn't you ask me about this sooner? You know that I've been busy…"

_Yeah, if anybody knew that she had been busy, it was him. _But, yet again, he didn't address that. "I'm gonna take care of securing the costumes. Did you have anything you were maybe thinking about?"

"I was gonna be Red, the Tethered. But, I can always use that jumpsuit as a work suit when I'm tinkering on machinery this semester, since you'll be handling my Valkyrie battle outfit costume."

"How'd I know you'd pick the one with the flying horse?"

"Because the other one's belly is out," she said and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for my gift basket. You're too sweet for me," she said and something in her tone worried him. _What did she mean by that? Had she done something that might hurt or betray him? Was he just being paranoid?_

.

"I am definitely not being paranoid," Henry said as tried to convince Schwoz to hack into Charlotte's phone so that he could rest his mind on what she was doing in those times that they weren't together.

"You _are _being paranoid and I don't want any part of spying on Charlotte. She's the only one here who is my friend!" Schwoz said, pushing past the tall boy.

"Don't you want her boyfriend to be secure? Don't you want us to be happy? That can't happen if I can't find out what she's been up to."

"The moment that you let fear run your relationship is the moment you let fear ruin your relationship," Schwoz said and finally moved past Henry.

"It would be different if she was transparent! Charlotte's hiding something, and she is very smoothly avoiding letting me know what it is."

"Why are you so sure that it isn't a nice surprise?" Schwoz asked. "It's Charlotte. When has she ever done something bad to someone?"

"I made a checklist of the suspicious stuff that she's done in the past couple of months. I didn't include every single instance where she rescheduled things, but some of the lies I've suspected, and this one here… She said to me, in a pretty weird way "You're too sweet for me." What did she mean by that, huh? Huh? Who _ever _thinks that _I'm _too sweet? A guilty conscious, that's who!" Schwoz rolled his eyes and left. Henry continued to try to spy on his own. He was so into it that he didn't hear whenever the elevator opened and Jasper and Charlotte caught him trying to hack from the control panel.

"I'm sorry, what are you doing, Henry?" Charlotte asked. He let out a tiny scream and tried to clear the screens of her logins and his failed attempts. "Are you… investigating me?" She asked, angrily.

Jasper commented in a low voice, "I tried to tell you that he was on to you."

Henry stood up out of the seat and it slid when he did. He approached with his arms folded and nodded his head, "Yeah, I'm on to you, alright. One doesn't pay obsessive attention to detail in order to impress his observant intellectual sweetheart and not know when deception is afoot."

"Okay, cool," she said and walked passed him. She logged on to her accounts for him, left the on the screen, opened her phone and handed him that, and pulled out her Pearpad, to do the same. "I'll be up in the store. Let me know when you find what you're looking for but were too chicken to just ask me about, like a big boy." She slammed the Pearpad into his chest and punched the elevator button with fury. He whispered 'ouch,' but then rushed to check out her accounts.

Jasper wondered, "Are you kidding? You're not gonna chase her and apologize for what was clearly an epic fail on your part?"

"An epic fail? Mr. Told Her I Was On to Her? I'm gonna get to the bottom of this."

"You're gonna lose Charlotte. I'm gonna go tell her that you're so upset that you can't think straight and try to salvage this, since I'm somehow the one with the clear head right now."

.

Henry didn't find anything and Jasper was right - Charlotte was pissed. Now, empty handed and honestly embarrassed, he finally asked, "What was it that I was noticing, if it wasn't something going wrong?"

"Me being busy, maybe? Me having a lot on my plate. Me literally trying to complete my senior year and get all of the accolades for my graduation sash as I can?" She clasped her hands together and wondered, "Henry… If you can't trust me while I'm here, how are we going to make a long distance relationship work for the time that I'm not in Swellview? If you don't trust me when I give you full and complete access to my calendar and my life, how will you be confident that I'm not doing anything wrong whenever you can't see me for weeks at a time?"

"I can… But… Are you honestly telling me that there's _nothing, _ABSOLUTELY nothing, that you're hiding from me right now? Nothing that you've _been _hiding from me for a while?"

"There IS something! Because you love surprises and I wanted to bless you with a few - for your birthday, for Christmas, for the end of the school year. Henry, I have to put things together whenever I can and I don't want to ruin surprises for what could be the last special days that we spend together in a while. You think I'll be able to come home for your birthday when the college semester is in progress? You think I'll be able to spend whole holidays at your house when I come to visit my parents? I'm TRYING to make sure that everything goes as perfectly as possible, still keep some mystery and excitement, and do all of that while maintaining a perfect GPA and looking like a whole snack!" She folded her arms. "And to be honest, you not trusting me, and to go as far as to try to spy on me when all you had to do was ask if something was going on… That's a deal breaker, for me, Hen."

He felt his heart sink. "No, no, no, no…" He collected her hands into his and nodded his head, "Okay, I should have asked and if you'd told me all this, I hope that I would have let it go. But, please… I made a mistake. We're more than sweethearts. We're best friends. Adjust the deal, for me. I'll never do anything like this again. We usually have great communication. I think I got a little possessive and insecure after we… you know what… and you even said in your research that sometimes, teenagers react and respond differently than they feasibly would have after taking that step." She fought a smile. "I'm getting through," he noted and smiled at her.

"Don't ever make me feel the way that I did whenever I caught you snooping on me. I felt like you punched me in the heart. I'm not supposed to feel that way about you and if it ever happens again, I don't care how cute you are or how gentle your touch is, I'm gonna walk away."

"Deal! I'll never do it again." He gave her a tight hug and she sat there against his chest for a while.

"I'm exhausted," she admitted. "I've barely gotten any sleep lately trying to get your birthday gift secured."

"Hey, if we're good, I don't care, Char. As long as we're together…" His phone made a notification sound and he checked it. "You've been approved for a birthday Spa Ship reservation?" He read out loud.

"Oh, thank God!" Charlotte cried out. "That removes one thing from my hectic schedule."

"Spa Ship? Are you kidding?" He cheered. "Those tickets are virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get, Dude!"

"With the right one, anything is possible," she said. "I just felt like you rarely have time for yourself. Even on your birthday, Ray has been known to put you to work, and since the Spa Ship will have a fall tour, you could enjoy a spa getaway on the sea and step into 18 with comfort and tranquility."

"I can't believe I thought that you, a literal perfect freakin' angel was up to no good." He kissed her on the forehead. "What can I do for you? You haven't been sleeping well. Want me to I don't know… I feel like I should do something."

"Walk me home and give me goodnight kisses?"

"I _always _get the best parts of our deals!"


	11. So Let's Just Enjoy the Time We Have

**So, Let's Just Enjoy the Time We Have**

_How many days did they have left together?_

Henry's time as Kid Danger had been the most enjoyable when he wasn't someone's serious boyfriend. With that new responsibility, he was always mindful that he needed to come home safe, especially after Thanksgiving.

Charlotte gave him a scrapbook for Thanksgiving. He was a little bit salty about it, because he didn't know that they were giving each other stuff for Thanksgiving. While she said that they weren't, but she just wanted him to have this - what "this" was; it was something that he would always be grateful for.

She had used her research and interviewing skills to find articles and stories about Kid Danger and to ask people around Swellview, "Why are you thankful to have Kid Danger?" Their answers were quotes that she included in this scrapbook and the last page was "Why am I thankful to have Kid Danger?"

She went on to give this long detailed report of how she felt about Kid Danger and how Swellview would never have been as safe without him. She had him all choked up and he kept that thing in a lockbox and looked at it every single night since she gave it to him.

Then, they had Christmas together. She spent the morning and afternoon with her parents, but met him at the Man Cave at 4. Everybody did gift exchanges, but Henry told her that hers were at his house, so she opened what she had from the rest of their friends and gave him his gift.

He laughed and asked, "What do you think that you can even give me at this point, after what you did for my birthday and for Thanksgiving?" But, whenever he opened it, he almost started crying. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Do you think that I made an award winning gizmo for the gizmo fair and gave you the improved version so that whenever you're killin' it at Swellview U, you won't have to worry about your spelling?"

He smiled brightly and bragged as he pulled it from the box, "Hey, Guys! Charlotte made me a Pocket Dyslexicon!"

"Actually, it's called the Communiclicker, because it helps you to make things click."

Schwoz wondered, "What does it do?"

Henry began to show him, "It has a voice to text feature that pretty much never gets your words wrong. You can record and save all of your reports or whatever and send them to documents to print… or email or whatever. And she has a feature where I can write a sample onto the screen and it can even create files in my handwriting, from my voice."

"Until more people are empathetic about how difficult reading and writing can be for him, he needs a little boost," Charlotte said, humbly.

"You are always making his life easier and better," Schwoz said. Henry smiled. That much was true. Everything about her was pure and true, to him. He just wanted to give her everything.

Then, whenever they went back to his house, she confessed, "I got you something else."

"What?"

"Because that one was more functional. I wanted to also give you something nice."

"This IS nice. It's one of the nicest gifts ever."

"Yeah, but open this one," she said and gave him a small box.

Henry opened the box and there was a kinda gaudy, but he actually still loved it, pinky ring. It was white gold with November birthstones topaz and citrine, and clear crystals to look like diamonds. "I have been wanting a badass pinky ring for ages!"

"I know!" He gave her a hug and put it on, then took her hand.

Charlotte's gifts were plentiful. Henry figured he could do one good quality one and supplement it with a quantity of others. So, for her quality present, he got her this personalized surfboard, because the school she was going to was near the beach and she said that she would want to learn to surf. They were good at listening to each other. And she loved it, even if she wasn't sure if she would actually have the time to learn to surf.

He got her several articles of jewelry, a naturalista holiday gift basket, and the new Captain Man and Kid Danger talking figurines with 20 rhyming lines. "In case you miss us."

"I'm gonna be in communication with you. But, I love these. I was gonna buy them myself, but Jasper told me not to. Now I see why. Wow. In a few blinks, it'll be months from now and I'll be heading off…"

"I don't want to think about that."

And he didn't speak of it, but he certainly did think about it.

Valentine's Day was epic. Henry planned a VDay Weekend Staycation for them. He cooked, pampered and loved on her for three straight days. It was excellent. She had found the most traditionally romantic gifts that she could think of for this day, since it was really her first real one and simultaneously probably their last one for a while.

He got a huge platter of chocolate covered berries from her, a gigantic teddy bear, roses, a jumbo sized card, and she wore shirts the entire weekend that said, "Henry's Girl" on them. And Henry ate it up.

The Airbnb was in town, but he made sure that they didn't have to leave by providing everything that they needed, along with all the candles and rose petals and stuff he used to woo her for days.

Plus, he bought her a ring, too. "Is this a Pulse Promise ring?" She asked, taking it out of the box. "Henry… these cost A LOT of money…"

"I had it," he said. "Remember whenever you said that you'd rather know as soon as possible if anything ever happened to me?"

"Yeah, but that didn't mean get me a ring with your ding dang pulse attached to it!" But, as she fussed, she slipped it onto her hand. She could feel his pulse in it and she placed her hand over his heart, to feel them in tandem. "It works." She said, then sadly added, "And if God forbid something terrible happens, I'll know right away…"

"I always do my best to come back to you safely," he said. It's basically to confirm for you that I'm okay when you're too far away to really see for yourself."

"Just a couple of months…" she said.

"Shhhhh. We've got all weekend to enjoy. Don't bring it down."

.

It wasn't that he was avoiding the inevitable, but he really didn't want to dwell on it. Spring Break was litty. He and Jasper hung out while she checked out spaces near her college. She only had two days to actually chill with them, so they made the most of it without her.

For her birthday, since she hadn't allowed them to do anything last time, Henry told her that she'd BETTER BELIEVE that they were doing something this time. This time, she had a party with Jasper, Henry, Schwoz, Ray and Piper. They put her on a throne that Henry decorated, in a crown that he bought her and did a gift presentation. "This is really extra," Charlotte observed. "But I'm enjoying it."

Ray came up, patted himself down and pulled out a folded envelope, "Happy Birthday!"

She accepted it, looked at it and told him, "This is my paycheck."

"Hand delivered to you. You're welcome."

"I mean… I earned it, so it isn't a gift…"

"The gift is that I hand delivered it to you. You are welcome."

She rolled her eyes and waved him away, excited for whatever Henry's gift would be, though at this point, she was positive that they had been spending WAY MORE than they should have this close to their independence. Henry told her, "Don't freak out. Your gift isn't something that you can take with you…"

" Why would I freak ou…?"

He showed off his collarbone and revealed to her a tattoo that made her not only gasp but almost choke on her own saliva. "It's an infinity symbol with our names scripted into it." Everybody but Jasper gasped too.

Piper said, "Mom is going to kill you! I'm texting her right now!"

"I'm 18, Piper!" He reminded her, then asked Charlotte, "What do you think?"

"I think that's a serious and permanent decision!"

"That you love?" She was stunned. Ray pulled him aside before she could respond and she was glad, because that was SO overboard, in her personal opinion. She would NEVER get a boy's name tattooed on her. Not even Henry.

Ray whispered, angrily, "You put an identifying mark on Kid Danger's body?"

"I put it on MY body. My body, my rules."

"Your rules are being VERY reckless right now."

"Dude, if ever someone gets Kid Danger naked, I doubt they'd have left the mask on and if I die or something like that, I'll be dead. Chill out." He patted him on the back and returned to the Queen of the Day.

She came off of her throne and spoke quietly. "Why did you do that? Henry, have you ever once considered that this might not BE a forever thing?"

"Of course I've considered it. I consider it all the time. But, I know how I feel, what you mean to me, and who we are. Even if "this" isn't a forever thing, these are forever feelings for me. Besides, you're my best friend." She sighed. It was done now. "You hate it."

"I don't hate it, it's just… scary. Do you know how close we are to our lives and relationship changing drastically?"

"I'm not concerned about it…"

"Less than two months and our world shifts. We have no idea what the future holds."

"Okay, but that means you don't know if after you're done with school, we'll be inseparable again. So… I'm confident in my decision."

"If you like it, I love it."

"THAT is all I wanted to hear!"

But, she was right. Less than two months. _How many days did they have left together?_

"Not enough," he said to himself.


	12. Soooo… She's Gone

**Soooo… She's Gone**

The day that Henry was dreading was finally there. They had a wonderful prom. They had a graduation that Charlotte didn't want to give a speech at, because she hated public speaking with a passion, but had to for the sake of tradition. She started kinda miserably, (because she kept stumbling over her words and forgetting the speech that she spent weeks memorizing and had recited the night before, flawlessly in front of a bed full of stuffed animals). But, a room full of peers, teachers, and parents was far different. It wasn't until Henry cheered from his seat, "Give it to 'em, Char!" That she finally snapped back into her confidence and found her voice and her words. They had several kickass graduation parties and an awesome summer. They were together virtually nonstop. His parents didn't mind that she spent nights, so long as they weren't too loud and as long as they were responsible and safe. Her parents were a little bit more hesitant about that, but let her know that they trusted her to be smart. (Of course they did. They always trusted her).

Now, she was getting ready to get on a plane and wouldn't be back for months. He'd be naive to think that wouldn't affect them. That wasn't what he thought at all when he fought off tears as she cried onto his plaid and wondered why he wouldn't talk to her about this day _before _now? "I didn't wanna ruin the time we had left."

"That's selfish," she muttered. He rubbed her back. It was selfish. He knew that she liked to communicate about things and that she probably needed to discuss them officially.. but in his mind, he could only imagine her breaking up with him before flying away to a new life. He _had _to hold off on it as long and as much as possible.

"I'm sorry, Baby," he whispered.

"Not you're not!" She fussed as they announced her plane boarding. She pulled away from the hug and shook her head, "I'm not prepared for this. I tried really hard, but you and I have unfinished business. How am I supposed to focus?"

"Just.. don't worry about us. School is more important." He winced as he said that. Truly, nothing was more important to him, but he had to say something to ease her mind, after drawing out their separation.

"Okay," she said sadly. She grabbed the handle of her luggage and began to walk away, not turning her head from him. He seemed so cool and she'd thought he'd be the one blubbering today. Maybe she overthought her importance? He'd just said himself not to worry about them. But, what did he even MEAN by that? _Don't worry because we'll endure and we'll be fine, or don't worry because he certainly won't be because we're done? _See, THIS is why she kept trying to discuss this with him!

She waved and vanished through the door. Whenever she got on the plane, she was seated on the window with these redheaded twins next to her. She had to cross them and one helped her put her bag away. The one on the end kept trying to talk to her over his brother in the middle. She just wanted this trip over already.

Henry watched the plane leave and whenever he got back to the Man Cave, stood in the center of the room and announced, with _such _defeat, "Soooo… she's… gone." He quickly retreated, wiping his eyes and the others just watched. Nobody wanted to bother him.

.

Charlotte adjusted quickly to her new surroundings. She and those twins were heading to the same campus, which she thought was bananas,but welcomed the possibility of new friends.

When she and Henry video chatted, she asked him if they could finally talk about the "crappy situation" they were in.

"Go for it," he said.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm not going to be trying to do anything like what we've been doing with anyone else. I'm gonna be focused on school.. but I'll understand if you have other options."

Henry raised an eyebrow, "Is that you officially breaking up with me, or you extending a pass to cheat, which I never asked for?"

"It's me extending the ball to your court. I've told you my intentions. That's all that I can think to do for us."

"Well,my intention was to have you be here and for us to be together. So, it doesn't matter to me if you want to be together or apart, because we aren't even together. I'm not interested in doing stuff with anybody else. But since you brought it up, maybe that's what _you_ want. You want to see other people?"

"I brought it up because I figured that's what you would do. You did it to Chloe. You did it to Bianca. And NOW, you're older and more accustomed to the physical fulfillment of a relationship…"

"Wow."

"I'm trying to be realistic."

"Well, you're being hurtful and untrusting." She held her head. "I don't want to cause you any pain, Char. So, maybe… We can be together when we're together and when we aren't, we aren't."

"So, if I'm visiting, we play house, and if not, the mouse will play?"

"What is it that you want me to do? You're the one who moved across the country!"

"The fact that I gave you months to discuss this with me and you avoided it only to attack me not that I'm too far away to come smack you is very small of you, Henry. I thought that we were better than this." Someone knocked on her door and she sighed and said, "Hang on."

"Hey… You okay? Sounded like you were fussing with someone," Henry heard some dude asking.

"I'm fine. Thanks for checking on me. Where's your twin? I never see you two apart."

"He got placed in a different dorm, but at least I've got you here."

"I gotta get back to my call."

"Ok. If you need anything, I'm right next door and my door will always be open."

"Cool. Thanks…"

She appeared again and Henry couldn't help but wonder, "Who's Mr. Nice Guy?"

"Met him on the plane and I guess we're neighbors now," she explained, as quietly as possible.

"He likes you. Is he.. Do you find him attractive?"

"To be honest, I hadn't paid him much mind and furthermore, we're not gonna be discussing other people with each other."

"So, he _is _other people, then?"

She forced a smile and said, "If it's gonna be like this, I don't want any of it, Henry."

"That's best," he said.

"That's best for you?" She asked, her lip quivering.

"For you, I guess." He shrugged and an alert sounded in the background. "I have to.."

"Yeah, go… Goodbye, Hen."

"Bye, Char. You… you _know _that I'm still gonna love you, right?" She nodded, then disconnected the call before her tears started.

.

And she stuck by what she said. She didn't date anybody. A semester passed, and she still hadn't even gone out on the town. But, get studies were important. She did hang with the twins in her neighbor's dorm when his roommate was out. It was cool to have a couple of dudes away from her dudes, though Jasper informed her to never refer to the twins as "her dudes," in his presence.

Her first visit home, Henry managed to avoid her the entire winter break. She _knew _he was doing so and she knew he was perfectly fine because she felt his gosh dang pulse every night when she put on her ring before bed.

She visited the Man Cave and Ray didn't even make fun of her. Instead, he complained about the new girl in the cave. She didn't meet said new girl, whose name Ray couldn't remember, but whenever she asked Jasper, he turned pale and pretended not to know of what girl she spoke…

She asked him to give Henry the ring back and let him know that for future visits, she wouldn't be coming to the shop. (Not if that meant Henry avoiding her, or worse, seeing him there with her "replacement.")

So, the next semester, she decided to try to relax a little bit and at least go on a date or two. That turned into an oddly satisfying, if not sorta odd polyamorous relationship with the twins. She'd never considered such a thing before, but now that she had, it definitely fulfilled her.

Though, whenever they wanted to bring in more, a few months later, she shrank back. Maybe in the future, but she was about to be a straight A sophomore and two boyfriends had been quite enough. They remained friends and she wished that Henry could have been half as mature as either of them.. but GIRL, Henry was a year ago. Let that ish go.

.

She came home for the summer and Piper begged her to hang out. She didn't want to come to the house, but Piper swore, "Henry and Babe aren't here." _Babe?_

"Babe?"

"Yeah, that one girl. Can you believe that she comes to Swellview to see him and works as a temp in that stupid junk shop. She's a video game maker… why even stoop to that level?"

"For a boy…" Charlotte said, heartbroken AF, but determined not to show it. "Okay. Well… we'll have a sis slumber party."

They were hanging out in the living room when Henry came in and froze, seeing Char there, with two French braids in a pair of pajamas on his couch. "Hey, Hen!" She said, trying to remain neutral. She failed. Her voice was high and her heart was beating so fast that she thought she might pass out.

Henry waved his fingers weakly, then the door opened behind him and he kicked it shut. They all heard Babe yelp, "Ouch!"

Charlotte's eyes went wide as Henry opened the door and said, "Sorry. You gotta go."

"What do you mean?"

"Can't hang out tonight." He shut the door and locked it, then rushed upstairs. Charlotte tried not to laugh. Piper got up, went to the door and said, "Awww. That was really mean of him to do to you. Just because Charlotte is in town, he can't spend time with you? The nerve."

"Charlotte's here?"

"Yep. Spending the night. He didn't tell you she was back? She's here the whole summer!" Babe rushed off and Piper waved at her and shut the door again.

"Wow. You really played that up. Don't like her?"

"She's not you," Piper said.

Charlotte was going to claim that things were over between her and Henry, but their reactions to seeing each other was enough for her to know that wasn't true. However, she had to know what was up with her and Babe and as soon as Piper was asleep, she went to confront him about it. That resulted in the two of them "being together when we're together," because neither of them seemed able to control not touching each other, among other things.

Babe got on a plane that very night and Henry didn't even know because he was wrapped around Charlotte when that text was sent.

Charlotte woke up in his bed. He was gone, but that pulse promise ring was back on her finger.

.

She didn't come around him too much for her summer visit. She worried that she wouldn't think straight if she did. Whenever she made it back to school, they went back to not talking after a summer of not being able to resist each other.

Perhaps next summer, she could take a break elsewhere. Her parents had tried to get her to take an overseas trip the summer before college, so she checked with them and they were definitely still in support of her doing so. So, another year passed, she went to Europe. Another passed, she went to Asia. Her senior year, she came home for Christmas and Henry was in NYC. She figured with Babe. She didn't dwell on it. It wasn't the first time he'd went to her. Anyway!

Post graduation, she knew she had to hunker down. She still needed her master's degree and wasn't sure yet how she was going to do it, but the time away from Henry was long and weird. She wondered how he was and texted him to ask.

_Hen, it's Charlotte. How are you?_

The question tortured him. He was just strumming his tattoo and thinking about her moments before she texted. Dang universe must've nudged her.

_Fine. And yourself?_

_Not fine. I miss you. I'm sorry…_

He sighed and gave her a call. "Hey… now, when you say that you miss me… You mean like you miss that we used to be close and now we barely speak?"

"I mean everything. What happened? Why did it go down that way? What was so wrong with being together when we're together?"

"We weren't together enough…" they both held the phone. "Are you alone right now?"

"I'm always alone," she said.

"No.. I meant are you single?"

"I usually am. Henry, in the past four years, I've had three boyfriends and both those relationships didn't make it three months."

"You said three, then you said both…"

"Long story. But.. you… I mean you were in NYC for Christmas. Were you there with Babe?"

He laughed, "What? No. We aren't like that. I mean.. we've seen each other socially, but never seriously. I haven't been able to have one serious relationship in all the years that you've been gone. I compare everyone to you. I miss you. I've said your name in my sleep with someone else lying next to me, apparently on several occasions.. I'm never getting over you. That's just the truth. I was in New York to apply for a full hero status. Had to tell my parents that I was thinking of going to NYU."

"Well? Did you get it?"

He smiled, "Yeah. Your guy's a full blown hero now."

"I'm proud. Can we see each other when I come home?"

"Sure. I would have loved to see you more, but you were.. travelling."

"Yeah, I was avoiding you. When I last saw you we kept going to bed together!"

"Okay? So, why'd you bask me what happened to us when you know that you ran from me?"

"I ran because I was afraid it was unhealthy. You'd already broken up with me and had started seeing Babe socially."

"I still loved you and you knew that. I still do."

"Well.. I'll… see you soon…"

"Not soon enough."


	13. So, Cheesy Romantic Picnic on the Grass?

_So, anybody that has been following me here knows that chenoahchantel/noreasonjustbored is my BABAY in this fandom. Thanks for keeping me company when I'm alone with 12-18 kids in a big, scary house, and letting me toss ideas off of you. Hopefully, fulfills the audience. _

_For all who read, I just wanted to thank y'all. I thought this would be a one shot, but y'all showed up asking for more and I gave more until I came to what I felt like was the end of the journey. Grateful for everyone who took it with us. To think, it started out with some silly dreams. *Biggie voice: It was all a dream!* Anywho… And now the conclusion of So: The Henry Danger Fanfic aka So, I Had a Dream..._

**So, Cheesy Romantic Picnic on the Grass?**

Charlotte had an appointment to check out a small house that she could rent near the university and an interview for an on campus job. When she got back into town, Piper picked her up and wondered, "So.. since you're moving back home, are you and my brother ..?"

"I reached out to him and told him that I miss him. We're going to talk, probably. I hope."

"Have you seen him since the last time I saw you?" Piper wondered.

"No. He's not on social media anymore, or he's blocked me."

"He left social media whenever you went to Europe. Jasper says that he still stalks your pages though. He catches him doing it at work sometimes." Piper cleared her throat and asked, "You still love him?"

"More now than I used to, somehow."

"Well, I feel like I should be the one to tell you… if you aren't going to be able to love him the way he needs, just don't bother. He won't benefit from some kind of quick fix."

"Piper, are you looking out for Henry?" Charlotte teased.

Piper stared at her with a stone face. "Somebody had to after you just quit on him. Did you think Jasper could do it? Jasper can barely take care of himself!" She tapped the steering wheel with her fingers and said, "If you're really gonna do right by him, you have nothing to worry about."

Charlotte found Piper's protectiveness a little weird, but she hadn't been around in years. For all she knew, Henry and Piper were close now.

Whenever they pulled up to this duplex, Charlotte squinted her eyes and wondered, "Where are we?"

Piper gave her a look and said, "Henry's," like, obviously. She slammed on the horn a bunch and unlocked the doors. "He and Jasper are renting this place from that boss of his at the junk store. I had no idea that he owned property. That makes sense. Because, to this day, I've _still _never seen anyone purchase anything from out of there."

Charlotte kept silent. This was probably something he had on Captain Man's dime. She wondered if Henry and Jasper were _actually _paying rent, or just able to stay because of Captain Man's resources in Swellview. Jasper was out first, in a belly shirt and a pair of jorts, and Charlotte had to admit - he'd been working on those abs! He rushed and gave her a big hug and swept her up off the ground cheering, "She's home!" When he put her down, they were just chattering excitedly. She saw movement in the corner of her eye, but was a little bit nervous to even turn and see Henry. But, she did. He was speaking quietly with Piper and grabbing Charlotte's bags from the SUV. Piper looked concerned and he looked… well, kinda like he was trying to avoid being scolded.

But, more importantly… He looked… _different. _He was more muscular, had some facial hair. With the tank top he was wearing, she saw that he'd added more tattoos and she wondered if he'd done so to rid himself of hers. That suddenly terrified and saddened her… But, nope… When he shifted to throw another bag on his left arm, she simultaneously noticed that her tattoo was still visibly in tact (as well as noticed the flex of his muscles when he picked up more). "Hey, I can help…" She said and went to try to get a bag from him. He just smiled and shook his head, then went inside.

Piper had her arms folded and she looked at Charlotte, "You're gonna be here for him, right?"

"Right."

"Okay. Call me soon so we can connect. I know the two of you have a lot to discuss." She hugged her then pointed to Jasper and said, "Go home. You can see her later, like everybody else."

"This is my home!" Jasper said.

Piper pointed at the right side of the duplex, "That's your home and you go to it, NOT to Henry's, right now. Where are his keys?"

"In my pocket."

"They better stay there until he's better." She fussed and then smiled sweetly at Charlotte and waved as she got into the vehicle.

"I think I've grown on her," Jasper said, nodding. Charlotte gave him a confused look.

But, then something occurred to her, "Wait, why are Henry's keys in your pocket?"

Jasper waved a hand and said, "Piper makes me take them if I see him drinking because he got wasted, busted his fists up, got alcohol poisoning, and nearly choked on his own vomit."

"Oh my God!"

"I made that sound worse than it was. These were three different occasions. Not the same night!"

"Jasper, _that's_ worst. That means this is a habit. How'd he bust his fists up?"

"Punching an indestructible man repeatedly." Charlotte held her head. "In his defense, Ray was really asking for it and he was extremely drunk."

"When did he start drinking?"

"It just helps him cope. He does it all the time and only had three incidents."

"Jasper… Drinking "all the time" is an incident, okay? And the three incidents to listed sound pretty bad. He choked on vomit? Alcohol poisoning? Thank God that you take his keys, or he might have harmed someone or himself!"

"Ohhhhh… now that I think about it… The night that he busted up his fists, he did almost crash. He came home with blood all over him because apparently liquor is a blood thinner? Who knew, right? And Piper immediately tried to rush him to the hospital, but he knows that Schwoz can probably fix it, so he says he'll do it tomorrow. Well, Piper is insisting it happens now, before he gets blood all over the house that their parents think that she's responsible, though I'm pretty sure she was probably worried. She's asking him what happened, was it a fight, did he bludgeon someone to death, did he attack a brick wall? He says fine, jumps in the truck and speeds off. So, at this point, I'm confused, because I was his ride home and she's aggravated. She calls the cops on him, and we get in her car and try to follow him. He was all over the place and nearly drove through the front of Junk N' Stuff. He gets out and goes in, and she's SOOOO mad, but I convinced her that I'll take care of him and make sure he gets medical attention. Schwoz fixed him up, but he had to of course wear the bandages for a while, for good measure. But, Piper's been hard on his case ever since."

"Can you blame her?"

"Charlotte… That doesn't help him. He needs support. He needs love…"

As though on cue, Henry returned and even though he was beautiful, Charlotte certainly noticed the pain in his features. He finally gave her a hug as he asked Jasper, "Trying to steal my woman? I don't play that. Not with this one." He gave her a kiss on the forehead and she melted against him and glanced down at his gray sweatpants.

"Piper told me to go home," Jasper said.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea for right now, so we can… chill, you know?"

"Talk to you soon, Jasp," Charlotte said.

Henry flinched and he joked, "You don't call my Jasp "Jasp, _I _call my Jasp "Jasp."

"He's our Jasp," she said, with their arms still wrapped around each other. Jasper vanished into his duplex and Charlotte looked up at Henry. "Hey, Hen," she said. He just smiled and pulled her close to himself. "You're going kinda easy on me. I guess I expected a fight."

"I've been waiting for years for you to come back. Last thing I want is to fight with you." He rubbed her back and her arms, then cradled her to himself.

"You okay?"

"No. I missed you more than my brain even has words to like depict or whatever." He leaned back and said, "I would kiss you, but I'm not as good as reading you as I used to be and I wouldn't want to cross any lines."

"Well, I would kiss you, but I just want to know… How much have you had to drink today?"

She saw the flicker of offense and he dropped his arms from around her and laughed a little. "Wnat me to pour you one?"

"No thanks, I don't drink."

"Of course you don't. Your life is perfect. You're perfect. Charlotte Page never does anything wrong or unsavory…"

"There's the fight," she said under her breath.

"Yeah, since you wanted one!"

"I'm not trying to fight. I just heard that you were having some problems and I'm concerned. Piper certainly seemed concerned. Can't I be concerned, or did I lose my rights to caring about you?" They were inside. He flopped down onto the couch. This duplex was actually pretty spacious! But, she wasn't distracted. She sat next to him and said, "I would never attack you, Hen. I have your back. But, the things that I've heard are scary, and I want what's best for you. Do you think you might need to see someone about it?"

"What, like rehab? No. I see a lot. I go through a lot. And, from the time I was 13 on up, I have had a very dangerous and stressful job. I was a good kid. I was responsible and dependable. More than most of these cats in Swellview, you know? It's just that nobody really knew that, because I had to hide who I was and I didn't have the energy to be that kid 24/7. When I unmasked, they got Henry. Hopeless Henry, with the bad grades and short attention span." He chuckled. "It was always okay, though. I had the best friends somebody like me could have. And for a while, I had the best girlfriend. I actually thrived for a while. I was doing pretty good in school. My parents were pleased with me. Like.. I was that dude. Then… we graduated and I had to try to adapt to college life with a different dynamic in my support system. I lost my girl and my best friend when you left…" She furrowed her eyebrows and he quickly said, "I'm not saying I blame you, I'm just stating my stressors." He shook his head. "I did my best and was barely getting by in college. Those professors thought I was a lazy loser. I was protecting Swellview with most of what I had to give, and I didn't have my biggest supporter. I didn't want to bother you. I'd already messed things up between us. You… came to visit and we… I thought that maybe you could see that I knew I messed up. I thought that maybe you would open the conversation, because you're so big on opening conversations. When you didn't, I thought maybe it was because you no longer wanted anything to do with me. Because, you don't like to leave things unsettled. But, when you did, I took that as a sign. Then… you group chatted us months later that you weren't coming home for summer because you'd be exploring Europe. It was like the nail in the coffin."

"Okay… But, why didn't _you _just start the conversation? Henry… I started so many of our most important conversations and the last one that I tried to have, I tried to start numerous times, only to have you thwart it. Did it not occur to you that maybe I was scared that you wouldn't have the conversation with me?"

"It clearly did not." They were quiet for a while. "I'm sorry. I'm the one that broke things off. I'm the one that rushed to the first available girl to try to clear my mind of you. I'm the one who should have and didn't bring the conversation back around when it mattered. You did a lot of the heavy lifting in our relationship. I should have done all the lifting it would have taken to mend it, after I broke it. Because, I've thought about that conversations many drunken nights, and I definitely was the one who," he shook his head and clasped his hands together.

"Henry, if you don't think rehab, what about at least going to therapy? You should sort these things out with a professional."

"How do I explain my Kid Danger dilemmas?" He rolled his eyes.

They were silent again, then Charlotte said, "Okay… You… Have a very important job that you can't discuss for security purposes… A job in which you are responsible for the wellbeing of someone else. Say that you're in protection services… for special needs citizens. The job often changes, but someone is always in your care. It's stressful but it's your passion and your mission and it has affected you in A, B, and C ways…" He was pondering over this. "Don't think about it too hard. It'll hold up. They won't press you to ask what you specifically do, especially if you've already stated that you couldn't go into detail about the job. I just want you to be the best you that you can be. A healthy, happy Henry. You're… the love of my life. I can't stand to see you hurting…"

Henry looked shocked at her saying that. So, he hadn't messed everything completely upm afterall. He took her hand and pulled her closer to cuddle with him. "You're the love of my life, too," he whispered. "Char… Are you here to stay? Are you visiting before going somewhere else to get your masters or phD, or whatever you're working on next?"

"And leave you in Jasper's care again? Look at what happened last time!" She joked, but he had a serious look on his face and was still waiting for her to respond. She sighed and stroked his hair, "Listen, let's first focus on therapy and rehab, then we can have a conversation. I'll even be the one to bring it up." He smiled a little and for the first time since she got back, she saw some gosh dang hope in his eyes.

.

Charlotte cancelled her apartment hunt and just set up in Jasper's extra room. They thought it might make things less stressful for them if she wasn't all in his space, but she also wanted to be close enough to be able to immediately respond, should he need her. It took Henry a while, but she noticed within the next few months of summer, he began to relax more. She noticed that he didn't seem to be replenishing his bar, (because he didn't agree with quitting cold turkey, so it was definitely still there). She hoped that he was pouring out bottles as he got better and not drinking them, though. She and Jasper had keys to the place, so she sometimes went over to use his gym, and his shower. A few times, he'd caught her undressed or partially dressed and quickly retracted himself (yep, in his own home).

One time, though, she came in and he was there, setting stuff up on the mantle where his bar once was. "Hey… I thought you were at work."

"No. I had a meeting tonight, so I took the night off. It's too stressful to fight crime then try to talk to the group, and it was a good night for group," he said and came over to show her something. "Got my six month chip." She gasped and hugged him. It was an effort for him not to kiss her. "Therapy has been really good too," he said and pulled away from her to finish decorating.

"Well… I'm really proud of you and glad that you're doing so well on self."It had been difficult for her to stay out of the way, but she knew that she had to let him do it. If it was just another Charlotte controlled mission, he never could have gotten the recovery he needed or deserved. "So… If… You… are interested in having our conversation… I'd love to do that as soon as you want to." She noticed him tense up but she didn't know if it was nervousness, excitement, a cringe. Hell, he'd spent months fixing himself. Maybe the last thing he wanted was to connect with her or with anybody else. _What was she thinking? Six months wasn't enough time!_

"I want that more than anything," he said and turned around and leaned against the mantle. "But, I do have a busy week, so perhaps we can set a date. My therapist says that with my job being so versatile and erratic, that I have to be sure to try to have structure in my personal life and not to be impulsive, to maintain stability."

She pulled out her phone and synched their calendars. "Okay, so, as far as when you don';t have work, meetings, appointments and other engagements and I don't have class, work, etc… two weeks from now on Wednesday night sound good?"

"Sounds like a dream," he said (a callback to the first time he asked her out.

She immediately got that reference and added on to it, "So, cheesy romantic picnic on the grass?"

He smiled, the brightest smile she had seen in a while, "I'll bring the blanket."

…

"Aaaaaand, they lived happily ever after," the older Henry said. "True story about your mom and dad…"

The eldest in the backseat threw her head back and said loudly, "Mom, wake up! Dad is telling us the story about your first date again and still insists on pretending that he was Kid Danger!" Charlotte laughed and said, "I am awake and also… if you thought I was asleep, you were gonna wake me up, for that?"

The girl shrugged her shoulders, curls blowing in the wind. "He got to the end of the story. You know he always likes to end on that cheesy "I'll bring the blanket," (she imitated him) "line. Not even smooth. I can't believe you gave him three kids," she teased.

"He didn't have to be smooth. You've seen photos of your dad when we got married."

"Wasn't impressed," she said.

"You literally look just like me, with a tan and long hair," Henry said. "I wanted to name you Henry Jr, but Charlotte was afraid that you might have a complex about it when you got old enough for kids to tease you."

The middle child, and only boy spoke up, "Mom, then what happened after dad's cheesy, not smooth line."

"They are relentless," Henry commented.

"Well, they _are _my children," Charlotte reminded him with a giggle, then finished the retelling,

"_Charlotte's smile as she went back to Jasper's and started packing was the widest one she ever felt on her face. "What's happening? Are you… Where are you going?" Jasper wondered._

"_If I'm lucky.. To where I always belonged. Home to Henry. I'll know in a couple of weeks." She contacted Schwoz, "Hey, Schwoz… do you still have any It's Time gumballs?"_

"_I have the new and improved It's Time gumballs!"_

"_I'll be by to get it in a few. Click." _

Three Hart kids clapped their hands and cheered, "Way to go, Mom!" She chuckled.

"No respect," Henry said, shaking his head, but smiling brightly as they pulled into the carport of their summer house. Charlotte could hardly wait to hit the waves on her trusty old surfboard. Henry could hardly wait to grill hotdogs and… his alert went off and their eldest complained, "Ugh… You've gotta work?"

"Yeah, he does. It's how we have a summer house, so mind your tone, Girl." Charlotte gave Henry a kiss on the lips, placed her hand on his heart to feel his pulse in sync with her ring, and told him, "Come home safely."

"I always try," he said, as he pulled out his gumballs and tried to find some place to change.

"Okay! House Hart, unpack the truck for me," Charlotte said to her 16, 12 and 8 year old. She watched as a red and blue jetpack wearing streak went up and then over. The kids were distracted and said, "WHOAAA! THAT WAS AGENT DANGER!" They were all super excited and she just smiled and shook her head. She _told _Henry that the best way of always keeping them unaware of his secret identity was to tell them all of their lives that he used to be Kid Danger. No matter how obvious it became, they never presumed he was Agent Danger.


End file.
